I agree its all fun. I meant hopefully things go better for the rest of it.

 

OK, here's my comedy of errors, uh-ohs, WTFs and other assorted got-cha's.

I bought the AOD conversion kit from PATC in Shreveport, La. It came with almost everything I needed to put the AOD in my Mustang. The only thing it didn't include was the transmission cooler lines to the radiator.

The kit came with a replacement shifter arm to attach to the AOD. To do this, I had to remove the transmission pan, remove the thing that makes the transmission "click" when the gears are shifted, then remove a dowl pin that holds the shifter arm in place. As fate would have it, the guy that rebuilt the transmission pushed the dowl pin down so far that I couldn't grab it with anything. I decided there's nothing wrong with the stock shift lever, so I left the stock lever on and put things back together. More on that later.....

A buddy came over and we stabbed the motor and transmission one Thursday evening after work. It dropped in just fine. Got the Hooker Headers in position while the motor was being dropped in. Motor mounts bolted up nice and easy. Then came the transmission mount. It never crossed my mind to test fit the new cross member before re-installing the transmission. The holes in the mount didn't line up with the holes in the frame. 9:30 in the evening was not the most opportune time to find that out. I had to let the transmission hang there for a couple days until I could get to it the following weekend. I had to elongate the holes in the cross member before it mounted up.

After modifying the cross member I bolted in the transmission without any more issues. Next, I tightened up the headers and bolted up the exhaust pipes. The flanges on the headers actually touched the transmission pan flange. More on that later....

I hooked up the speedometer cable and shift linkage. I had my wife shift through the gears while I watched from under the car. By the time she got to "N", the transmission had shifted to "OD" or "D". The throws of the AOD and the stock shifter were way off. The lever on the transmission needed to be longer. I guess I should have used that new shift lever after-all. So I had to drop the transmission pan (the header flanges wouldn't let the pan come out, so I had to disconnect the exhaust pipes and loosen all the header bolts to let them move). Next I had to drill into that dowl until I could insert a pick and pry it out. I got the shift lever drum replaced with only two parts from the transmission flying out of place. Got those back where they belonged (whew), the pan reinstalled and the headers tightened up.

Time for the transmission lines. Mustangs Plus sold a set of pre-bent transmission lines made to fit an AOD in a '67 Mustang. For $50, you'd like to think they would fit, but they didn't. They were probably 4 inches too long. I had to cut the tubes, remove some of the length, and reconnect with compression fittings.

Time to install the TV cable. This is like a kick-down cable on a c-4, only much more important. This cable not only tells the car to down shift, but all shifting is done based on the amount of tension on the lever being pulled. Messing this up will burn up my transmission in a matter of 5 miles, so I've been told. The TV cable came in the kit, but the nice bracket to mount it at the carb didn't. I went to a speed shop and bought that part so everything will be nice and neat. On the transmission side, an "L" bracket mounts to one of the transmission pan bolts and holds the cable housing in place. Wouldn't you just know it - that's exactly where my header flange is. No way I can get the bracket to bolt up. Even if I did, it would be touching the header flange. I doubt that would be very good.

Off I went to a Pick-A-Part. I found a '82 Ford 4-door that had a carbureated V-8 with an AOD. This car had a rod that went from the carb to the TV lever on the AOD. I pulled that part and took it home. I installed it onto my AOD and had someone work the carb throttle from up top. Wouldn't you just know it - the rod hit one of the header tubes. (Those shorty headers at John's Mustangs are looking real good right about now)

I took my car to an exhaust shop. They cut the flanges off my headers and welded in extension pipes that connect the headers to the exhaust pipes. I don't look forward to ever having to cut them out of the car, but if they ever have to come out, I'm going to replace them with the shorties anyway. More importantly, the headers were no longer touching the transmission and I had just enough clearance to use the TV cable.

After sitting on a workbench for 2-3 months, I had three leaks in my Holley carb. I just had that thing rebuilt a month or two before I started this project. I took it back to the guy that rebuilt it and he put new gaskets in it.

As if I didn't have enough going on with the AOD conversion, I also discovered the power steering drop-down bracket was broken in half. Seeing that bracket move around whenever the wheels were turned was spooky. Replacing that bracket was probably the smoothest fix of the entire project.

Now it's together and working. Isn't it funny how you can spend so many evenings sweating like a dog, cussing, whining that "it isn't supposed to go this way", etc. only to be thrilled with how it turned out when its all said and done.