[1953truck]

i have a 1983 302 with aod tranny that i want to put in my 1953 f100. my question is, is this tranny any good for this application? thanks for your help.

[walrus]

Sure it is a good match , 302 is a great engine and the Aod is perfect as long as you get it set up right , Ford in a Ford , ,,,Sam

[JeffB]

If the transmission was working good before you'll probably be OK if you do a few mods while you have it out,early AOD transmissions had a lot of issues as did early GM 700R4 and 2004R transmissions up until 1988,the best money you could spend is to replace the valve body with a TCI 436020 Constant Pressure valve body (see website for more info) this will safeguard the chances of frying the transmission from not having proper TV cable adjustment and also improve internal lubrication and shift quality.www.speedwaymotors.com can hook you up with the mounts for the swap.

[KMatch]

It's rare that I see anything positive said about TCI, but without personal experience, I'll leave it at that. Check around for opinions on that one.

The AOD is a good choice if you know its weaknesses up front - the later the year, the better. The clickclick site is a goldmine. With overdrive, don't get lazy gears in the rear or it'll put you to sleep. 3.73 is a good combo although a shift kit/valve body WILL be needed to make it shift right - these use a governor/throttlevalve set up for granny gears and 3.73-4.11 screw up the shift points a bit. Transgo shift kits offer NO tuning and may or may not work as desired plus they offer ignorant "upgrades" such as overdrive at WOT which kills aods. Baumann kits look cheap out of the package but offer a good deal of tuning and simply WORK. For even better performance, if that's your thing, combine the Transgo Hi Rev kit with the Baumann - easy to do and really wakes up the shifting. Anyone interested, drop me a line.