man this is the thread Ive been waiting for.

Xpvanman, thanks for everything you have posted here. the ol' 4 speed is a deep mystery to all of us here (well perhaps 99% of us).

I have an 01 AU 4 speed, and I got her at 160,000 clicks. Decided to give it a minor service at 170k, filter, oil etc (but not a complete drain, aparently some stays in the converter?). I had a freind who works as a profesional mech do the job, and he said in the many btr's he has had to do oil and filter on, mine was by far the most burnt. as close as he could tell the origional fluid, and filter- never changed in 170k... also it had 2 magnets in the pan, and both had been overwhelmed by metal shavings. there was shavings in the ribbing of the pan too. after the fresh fluid went in it was so much better. it stayed like this for a while, but its now back to square one for what feels like slippage and its holding out on shifts (low fluid lvl?) (now 200k). Ill relate to an incident i had shortly after buying it... stoped at lights awaiting U turn. begin u turn, almost no throttle, as i straighten up, apply take off throttle pressure, no hook up, rev to redline, then a bang that would do a 50 cal sinper proud, before slipping into gear and never doing it again. is there anything that could have gone pop? band? clutch pack?

Ive recently found that the rear seal and bush? is worn and leaking fluid. sounds like a real horror story, but thats the great thing about the btr's, they can be 9/10s absolutely f**k, and they still get you around. hard to kill.

does it sound like its rebuildable? or would the money be better spend on a t5 conversion? (both big pains in the a***)

this steel sleeve, could possibly be all the metal we found in the oil?

the box works fairly well, in as that it changes gears without any fuss. after we did the oil and filter, it changed earlier than it did when it was low. now that its low again its really holding out the gears if your giving it the beans. downshifts in normal mode seem laggy, ie after it shifts response is dull, picking up after a few seconds that doesnt seem like an engine power delivery issue, as its only on downshifts. could be a slippage issue. changes do seem to take a while, but that could be a symptom of fords naturaly soft programing. its not noisy at all, just seems doughy. doughyer than most other 4 speeds ive onwed/driven. hearing that every 20k should see a service of filter and oil makes me think that doing 170k without change could be the culprit in its condition (yes i figured that out ALL by myself!)

would a viable alternative be to find a low k 4 speed from a wrecking yard, then give it an overhaul with this transtek kit and front servo kit, bang in a new torque converter (id like a 2500 stall), and pop it in?

Im not too savy on AU manual conversion, id assume you can use any of the boxes from ea-el, and the fordmods patended ecu resistor trick to get it running.

spending 2500 on an auto rebuild sounds a bit much when guys on here are doing full manual conversions on their cars for around $1500.

Yes, the metal could be coming from that sleeve or the flogged out extension housing bush, or the case bush that supports the output shaft inside - It needs a rebuild!

That $2600 for a rebuild is a drive in, drive out deal & comes with a 3 year/60K ATRA warranty but since you want a high stall, it'll be closer to $3K! If you can get a guaranteed low km trans - Replace the front seal, service it & throw it straight in (The local Ford wrecker here wants $600-$800 for a guaranteed low KM trans with 3 months warranty)

If you want to drive it till it karks itself & do a manual conversion on it , An EA - EL conversion is no good to you - You need an AU kit. The bellhousings & pedal boxes are completely different & the gearboxes are different - The EA-EL is a Borg Warner T-5 where as the AU is a Tremec T-5. The Tremec is 40mm longer & has a different gearshift. The AU kits are very hard to come by - The Ford wrecker here said he is lucky to get 2 a year & they sell as soon as he gets them.

It's a shame you live so far away - I have a T5 conversion out of a 02 AU XR6 VCT ute that had done 107K.....

It's a series 3 - No ECU.......