Fordnatics List Archive

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Mail From: (email redacted) (George Chang)

Ken asks......

>Is there anyway to get the trans to have a detent for every gear? Mine is
>od d 1, but I have seen some that are od d 2. What's the story?
>
...................................................................

Hi Ken,
In the boxy '80s Crown Victorias like the ones you and I drive,
the 351W police engine comes with an AOD tranny that you cannot put
manually into 1st gear. This is common practice among manufacturers to
assure that some cop does not jam the tranny into 1st at 70 mph in some
pursuit (or maybe that they do not leave it in 1st by accident?). In my
mopar police cruisers, there WAS a piece of steel that clampED onto the
tranny to keep it out of manual 1st.
My Crown Victoria undercover cars came with more ordinary trannies
that included a manual 1st, as you have pointed out.
Finally, there are several ways that manufacturers have assured
that their police trannies do not go into manual 1st gear. But that will
get us off on a tangent...

Best regards,
George

This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: William Kenneth Neher <(email redacted)>


On Tue, 22 Nov 1994, George Chang wrote:
> ...................................................................
>
> Hi Ken,
> In the boxy '80s Crown Victorias like the ones you and I drive,
> the 351W police engine comes with an AOD tranny that you cannot put
> manually into 1st gear. This is common practice among manufacturers to
> assure that some cop does not jam the tranny into 1st at 70 mph in some
> pursuit (or maybe that they do not leave it in 1st by accident?). In my
> mopar police cruisers, there WAS a piece of steel that clampED onto the
> tranny to keep it out of manual 1st.

My Caprice and my Crown Vic will not go into first until a sufficiently
low raod speed has been achieved, so I don't see the point. Also, I had
my Caprice in manual first and I wound it out. It decided that I made a
judgement error and shifted for me, albeit probably on the verge of
popping a slug through front sheetmetal. Maybe Ford was just lazy and
would not add a 4th detent?

_________ _________
|________ | | Ken Neher Emory University
________| * |_______| 1983 5.0 Litre Crown Victoria Police Package

"Our Lady Of Blessed Acceleration, Don't Fail Me Now!!!!"- Elwood Blues