All About The Ford AOD Transmission Setup

Ford made use of the Cruise-O-Matic C-4 transmission for close to 20 years behind the six-cylinder and small V-8 engine setups in almost millions of production cars till date. This 3-speed workhorse got replaced in the year 1982 by a popular and light-duty C-5 transmission. That was however discontinued in the year 1986. Because of the gas mileage rules and mandates that came directly from the federal requirements, Ford redesigned the C-4. It was designed into an overdrive automatic to lower highway driving ratios which resulted in excellent highway MPG ratings.

Ford called this particular replacement transmission the AOD, which stands for automatic overdrive. As a matter of fact, it became the company’s first automatic 4-speed offering for the masses. Since the AOD is fundamentally a retooled C-4, this has proved to be highly advantageous for many classic car owners. They have discovered they the overdrive transmission can be fully replace into the production vehicles of the 60s and 70s. That can be done quite easily and in addition to that the owners can reap the benefits of a final gear ratio (lower). This would also mean decreased wear and tear on their classic small-block V-8 engine. The Ford AOD transmission setup was originally used on the 80s and 90s Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln products. They were also used in the F-series pickups along with the E-series vans that were produced during that time.  

Since Ford used these particular transmission setups in a lot of production vehicles, the Ford AOD was relatively easy to be located at used parts yards and fields. All of these used parts and components can be purchased for a reasonable price and the quality is also not bad (it is fairly decent). The Ford AOD transmission does not require a computer to function in the best way either. The throttle valve function can be easily activated mechanically. In addition to that, the torque converter lock-up function is contained entirely inside the case used for the transmission. During the later phase of the production, Ford used this transmission as a basis for some of the latest overdrive versions. The AOD-E or electronic-overdrive, which can used in the beginning of the year 1993 is a great example of that.