Hello everyone,

I hope that I'm posing in the correct forum! I have a 1966 Mustang with a 347 Stroker and Ford AOD w/ shift kit. The (new) transmission has never really worked correctly - it shifts too hard under light throttle, doesn't downshift when it should and bogs down under full throttle. It almost sounds and feels as if it's not getting enough fuel (perhaps a clogged pump?), but given that the transmission has a host of other problems, I'm wondering if it's possible that they could all be related. My mechanic suggested the torque converter might be too tight, but I just don't see how that can be responsible for bad shifts and engine bog. I was wondering if anyone might have related experiences or ideas? Thank you for your time!

 

TKW1101,Wow, I have not had trouble with the engine when the tranny was acting up. Not to say that it isn't possible. I ran a highly modified AOD in a 94 GT and was very unhappy with its performance. I cut my losses and replaced the AOD with a highly modified C4 and was happy as a hog in dodo. Now, with the Dart big blocks the tyranny of choice is the Power Glide. Your problem is unique because I think you might have two separate issues. I know the tranny will act up if the engine is faltering because the "line pressure" is not high enough to make the tranny shift correctly. Here is what I know. A properly selected converter should match the torque curve of the engine. A "loose"converter (very high stall speed) will suffer from excessive slippage and slow ET's. A converter that is too "tight" (low stall speed) will have poor 60 ft. times and 1/4 mile ET's, because the car is launching with the engine below its torque peak. As a rule, high-revving small block powered cars will require a much "looser" converter than high torque, big block powered cars. A car with a 454 cubic inch engine will cause an identical converter to "flash" to a higher RPM than the same car with a 350 cubic inch engine, due to the additional torque of the big block . TKW, hope this helps.