some help with a 1988 crown victoria

last night my friend had a buddy stop by that rebuilt transmissioins years ago. he mentioned a relay up by the radiator along the fender that controlled the torque converter engagement. he said this might be the problem. i hope thats it. this sure has been a learning experience. no wonder i dont like ford products:D
 
If it drives fine going down the road but lurches, bucks, and the engine dies when coming to a complete stop, the torque converter clutch is locked up (no, you won't get it to unlock by beating on anything). The transmission in that particular car is an AOD transmission. (AOD=automatic over drive). The throttle is mechanically connected to the transmission (by way of the cable you were playing with) and the converter lock up parts are all contained inside the transmission. Most likely you can fix it by adjusting the cable. It is possible when the cable came off that it disconnected or is not sitting in the proper spot inside the transmission. If you can't get it to work by adjusting the cable I would suggest taking it to a transmission shop to have a qualified tech look at it.

To correctly adjust the TV (throttle valve) cable assembly, release the locking tab on the TV cable and have someone hold the throttle full to the floor. Lock the tab down and mark this setting on the cable casing. This will be your maximum TV setting. Measure 5/16 in. back from that mark (with throttle still wide open) and scribe another mark as your minimum throttle valve setting. Then make a third mark halfway between both scribe marks (5/32 in. from either mark). Unlock the locking tab again and set the adjustment at this halfway mark to have a properly adjusted TV cable. If this doesn't work, then the cable is not sitting properly inside the transmission case.

I don't mean to say that some of the people that have replied to your question don't know what they are talking about, there were a few that pointed you in the right direction, and ALL were trying to help with the best of intentions. BUT, asking for automotive advice on a forum can lead you to chasing your tail around and wasting more time and money than if you just took it to a qualified tech in the first place.

Brad
www.AndersonKnives.ca
 
thanks for the info brad. he said the book might be wrong when it said to have it in neutral and at idle. we'll give this a try tomorrow afternoon when he is around to work on it. thanks a lot and i sure hope this fixes the problem. sometimes even a book doesnt cover it all from what i have seen so far. i'll post the results which i hope will be good.
 
Just reading through all of these to see if someone would mention replacing/repairing the TV cable, and Teknition did. Start there.I was the service manager for an AAMCO yers ago, and I remember every time we got an AOD or AOD Metric transmission in for repair (Ford), I automatically added a TV cable to the parts list. They didn't call them ExploDers for nothing!

Hope this helps, good luck.

Rik.
 
the clip was replaced and seems to be fine other than that. the torque converter seems to still be locked. the car can be in neutral and still lunge forward slightly when the gas pedal is bumped. the next step is going to be droppig the pan and plate to see if anything is messed up or stuck inside. thanks for the info.
 
after trying everything suggested and after going through the useless manual, his parents decided to take it to a shop and just get another transmission put in. he wanted to thank everyone who took the time to post possible things to check for problems.
 
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