[Mac The Knife]

So I paid 675 for a lx hatchback, and a spare engine, being told that the engine in the car was bad, drug it home, and after putting in a new fuel pump, and cleaning out the gas tank, got it running. and yep, the engine was tired, smoked, and would not stay running when i put the tranny in gear,(A4ld). Also noticed that the front seal was leaking on the transmission. Pulled the engine, and before I put the other one in, I pulled the Torque convertor off to replace the seal, and discovered that the Stator shaft was broke,,,, so I saved the seal, put the TC back in place, and threw the other engine in anyways,,, may as well find out if it was good,,,, turned out it was, but the engine would still stall when the tranny was put in gear,,,, I figured the lockup clutch in the TC was being energized from fluid leakage through the break. I get the car into the garage, pull the tranny, and found another pump to put in, while I was at it, I added a Transgo kit, etc, filter gasket, and also discovered someone had put in new bands, and I assume clutch discs,,,, but didn't bother changing the thrust washer to tighten up the endplay, which was right at maximum. I put a used oil pump in, machined an alignment tool, (which I didn't believed was used previusly) to align the pump with the bellhousing, new seal, and reinstalled it. Worked fine, until 20 miles down the road its sewing tranny fluid past the front seal. Pull it back out, replace the bellhousing from one from Omega Machine with a new bushing and seal, a new torque convertor reinstall, and all is good again, until three days later, getting on the highway, i got a vibration at 3500 rpms,,,, and its doggy at stoplights, and when I first put it into gear affter starting, it stalls the engine.

Pulled the tranny out, and discovered that the stator shaft is broke, again. Any thoughts????

[74stang2togo]

Yikes, you've gone deeper into an automatic transmission than I ever have.

The most I've ever done is put in a front seal, output shaft seal, and change a torque converter. The transmission in my Chevrolet is built up, but the only work I did on it was putting the converter on it and bolting it into the truck after my transmission shop finished it, then adjusting the kickdown, and filling it with fluid.

I'd recommend calling a local independent transmission shop that specializes in performance transmissions, not because the A4LD is a performance unit, but because they're the most likely to help a DIY'er like yourself.

The only possible suggestion I might have is that they may have left out the thin sheetmetal plate that goes between the bellhousing and the engine block on Fords? I've heard of people leaving them out and tearing up transmissions.

[Mac The Knife]

Well,,, I hadn't heard of a reason for it breaking,,,, But I did receive the new pump this week, and it's going back together, along with a new filter etc. The only thing I can think of,,, was when it nose dived off of the floorjack, with the convertor on. The old pump was a solid cast iron peice, the new one (made in taiwan) is a two pice unit,,, the pump body is cast, and the stator support is steel,,,

On one of the ranger sites, someone posted a diary of rebuilding an A4ld,,pretty good write up and pictures.