1994 4.6L, 436k+ miles at time of retirement.
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2,928 Posts
Your Mark VIII Drive Shaft Experiences?
Hello, folks...
I am just curious as to the experiences anyone's had with the aluminum drive shaft. I've read the article posted in the Technical Articles entitled " Ford OD Transmissions 101 - Jerry's mod" and learned quite a bit from it.
However, I was asking a transmission shop about an aluminum shaft installation, and they questioned why. I mentioned the article, explaining that the person who wrote it is a Ford Transmission Designer, and that he even suggests the aluminum shaft for this car in this article because of it's higher critical speed.
The shop's reasoning was that aluminum isn't as strong, thus, it is more susceptible to breakage, and probably will break ("We see it all the time on Aerostars! Stay with steel.").
If these shafts were breaking, I'd imagine there'd be a recall, TSB, or flat-out 'no more making of them.'
One last item: is the 4R70W a type of AOD-E? Or are they different beasts? The article states the 1994 T-bird has the 4R70W, but a transmission shop said I have an AOD-E transmission (I even saw a part that had AOD-E printed on it while the transmission was being inspected).
Just curious, as I've already obtained the aluminum shaft, but it awaits installation. Going to aluminum, to me, makes sense, simply because a good percentage of my driving is sustained higher speeds (interstates mostly).
Hello, folks...
I am just curious as to the experiences anyone's had with the aluminum drive shaft. I've read the article posted in the Technical Articles entitled " Ford OD Transmissions 101 - Jerry's mod" and learned quite a bit from it.
However, I was asking a transmission shop about an aluminum shaft installation, and they questioned why. I mentioned the article, explaining that the person who wrote it is a Ford Transmission Designer, and that he even suggests the aluminum shaft for this car in this article because of it's higher critical speed.
The shop's reasoning was that aluminum isn't as strong, thus, it is more susceptible to breakage, and probably will break ("We see it all the time on Aerostars! Stay with steel.").
If these shafts were breaking, I'd imagine there'd be a recall, TSB, or flat-out 'no more making of them.'
One last item: is the 4R70W a type of AOD-E? Or are they different beasts? The article states the 1994 T-bird has the 4R70W, but a transmission shop said I have an AOD-E transmission (I even saw a part that had AOD-E printed on it while the transmission was being inspected).
Just curious, as I've already obtained the aluminum shaft, but it awaits installation. Going to aluminum, to me, makes sense, simply because a good percentage of my driving is sustained higher speeds (interstates mostly).