Projects Fordomatic to AOD Swap

Yesterday I got started on the AOD swap in my ‘54 Country Squire.
The car is a factory v8 automatic, but has a later 292 Yblock.

AOD will give me 4 gears including overdrive, and I had a perfectly good rebuilt AOD sitting around that I took out of a mustang when I swapped that to manual.

I got the fordomatic out yesterday. Wow that’s a heavy transmission.

I might modify the frame crossmember to make installing the transmission easier. The tail stock sits above the crossmember and the AOD is longer so making a removable crossmember would make install infinitely easier.

 

Interested to see how all this goes. I thought I would most likely just swap my Fordomatic for another one, but will be interested to see all you do here.

 

The center section of the frame comes out. I had to slightly change it for the 62 Cruise-o-Matic I have in mine. I’m not sure on the widths.

 

This is the crossmember I’m planning to make removable. I’ll cut it out and flange it and make it a bolt in unit. The wagon frame is boxes so I’m not too worried about introducing any flexibility.

 

I’m guessing I was thinking about the rear trans mount and not the cross member behind it!
If your trans was an air cooled you will need a cooler. Before I changed transmissions I up graded the radiator and had the cooler/heater added to the bottom tank.
Who ever did the rear seal on your engine did a great job.

 

I’ve got a cooler I plan to use and lots of line.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how dry the back of the engine was when the trans came out!
I bought this engine and transmission for $700 about 10 years ago. It was missing the distributor, intake, manifolds and carburetor but otherwise complete.
The story was that it was rebuilt and had about 5 summers of sunny day driving before the owner put a 302 in the car and put the yblock up for sale.

 

Does a Y-block have the same bellhousing bolt pattern as the SBF? Or do you need an adapter? Does the Fordomatic flexplate work with the AOD converter pattern? Just curious, as I'm not a Y-block guy.

 

Don't let minor discrepancies like you mentioned , stop it from being done.
As they say in the world of engineering "it is F****d when a welder cant fix it"

I would gut the AOD and perform a "Cut'n'shut" on the Fordomatic bellhousing to the AOD.

Here is an O/T Nissan Skyline manual transmission that me and my brother adapted to a BMW V12 [using a junk BMW auto casing]






This kept all the original starter and flexplate
It was surprisingly simple ,and with a bit of a clean-up and paint it looked OEM [to a novice]


SO ANYTHING CAN BE DONE IN THE SPIRIT OF HOTRODDING

 

Small block ford and yblock are a different bolt pattern,
I bought an adapter kit, it includes an adapter, flexplate and mini starter.

 

that’s pretty neat!
In my case I’m trying to keep the car easy to service and repair. If I ever need to replace this transmission I can replace it with another AOD and not have to re-fabricate anything.

 

I’ve been recording while working and plan to post a video on my YouTube channel when the job is done, but this might take all winter.

 

I got the adapters temporarily installed,
Now I can test fit the transmission.
The kit came with a mini starter, so I need to rewire the starter circuit.

does anyone recognize this starter?

 

And God bless the Ford engineers who decided NOT to put core plugs in the back of the engine block, unlike Chevys and Pontiacs.
Looking good so far. I made the center of my crossmember removable, great improvement.

 

I don’t recognize that starter, and the one I have isn’t where I can check it. But mine was wired internally, the Ford solenoid sent the power to the starter (as original), and the starter automatically engaged the solenoid and then cranked. No rewire was required.

 

It is a Hitachi Starter motor [very common]
The main wire goes to the battery ,and there is a smaller wire that goes to the starter switch.

If using a Ford starter solemoid/relay on the firewall you can bridge these 2 wires together [similar to the Chevy hot start fix]

or run another wire up to the firewall solenoid post connecting the "S" on the solenoid/relay to the "S" on the starter [parallel from the ign switch]

 

I took a break from the wagon to help a buddy primer his BelAir this morning.

I the afternoon I got the flexplate installed and the started wired up.
And it doesn’t start.
The flexplate and starter don’t mesh. It seems the starter needs to move a tiny amount to the right.
The kit came with shims and I didn’t use them. I think what’s happening is that the starter drive is loose in the plate and allowing it to move. About every 25th try it engages and turns the engine over.
I’ll take it apart tomorrow and try it with the shims but now it’s time for a whiskey.

 

I run an AOD in my 55 Thunderbird that I installed myself. As I remember you must clearance the AOD bell housing around where the starer pinion runs in. This may not be the same issue you are having. I also fbuilt a new cross member for my car as it was easier than trying to modify the stock one. At the time I did mine no one I could find had actually done the swap in a bird, so I was pretty much on my own. I also kept the stock floor shifter and modified it to retain the proper shift pattern. It works great. Learn all you can about cooling the AOD and proper pressure with a gauge and they will be a great improvement for your wagon.

 

After taking a second look at the adapter on your engine, I bet all you need to do is loosen it up and re-position it slightly then engage the starter again for a little more clearance.
It's a lot tougher doing all that under the car. I had mine on a floor stand.

 

My only complaint about the setup is I miss the sound of the old FORD starter!

 

Thanks! I’ll try that tomorrow.

 

I agree, the yblock starter has such a distinctive sound. I’ll miss that.

 

What's you plan for the carb, linkage and stock shifter?

 

If that adapter can be shifted on the dowels there's something very wrong with the machining. Any movement from centered will misalign the crankshaft, converter and transmission centerlines and there will be trouble. IF the centers are correct while on the dowels, the correct way to get proper starter mesh is to correct the starter mounting. More detective work may be needed.

 

Just put those shims in there.
They are not for gear mesh adjustment.
I had something similar when put gear reduction starters in fe and mel engine.you have to measure and adjust correct gap linearly between ring gear and starter gear.too small gap and it dont have enough time to rotate while engaging.

 

I bought the summit version of the lokar TV cable to connect to the carburetor. Summit version is about 1/4 the price.

I’ll find a way to adapt the column shifter to the AOD. The shifter moves in the same direction on both the AOD and Fordomatic so it shouldn’t be too much trouble. I may make a new detent plate for the column since thre AOD has an extra position.

 

The adapter is tight on the dowels so it shouldn’t move. But there are shims to move the starter.

 

Thanks! This is my plan. I’ll put on the shims and try again.
Off to have dinner with a friend I haven’t seen in a year and he’s been smoking meat for a few hours already so no work on the car today, hopefully back at it tomorrow.

 

Absolutely. It makes a big difference and could definitely be the problem.

 

When I added a high amp alternator I also added a maxi fuse. I’m using it as a terminal and removing the firewall solenoid entirely. Only had to extend the S wire to reach the starter.

 

The main cable from the battery to the starter. [you don't need a maxi-fuse in this wire]
Then you extend the S wire as you described

Most manufacturers take a secondary take-off from the starter post to a fuse/relay box [this can also be from the battery]

I like the idea of having a Ford Starter Relay/Solenoid as close to the battery as possible [we do this in trunk mounted batteries]
That way the main H/D battery cable to the starter is dead unless cranking the engine.
This ^^^^^ is just a safety thing.

If you still have a decent Ford Starter Relay/Solenoid seriously consider using it.
All the other wires can feed via fusible links.

This is how we do race cars [below]
But on a street car you wouldn't need the diode or isolator switch


The Alt wire diode comes in really handy when working in the engine bay [especially when wearing metal watch straps]