TV Rod to cable swap

[91merc]

What all is involved in swapping a CFI AOD with the TV rod into a 91 car with the TV cable? I’m considering pulling the trans from my 85 GM to put in my 91 that has no forward gears, so I can have the one from that car available to maybe do a performance build on in the future when I have more of a budget

[gadget73]

I think its just the lever on the side of the transmission that may be different. Pretty sure the shift linkage is also different. TV side is easy, one nut and it comes off from the outside. The shift one is annoying. Pan comes off, there is a roll pin in the pan rail you have to pull, and there is a nut on the inside. I think there is also a spring in the mix somewhere. Been a while since I did it. if you're pulling the trans, I'd say drain it before you remove it from the car, then roll it over and do the work with the valve body facing upward. Much less annoying than doing it with the trans overhead and dripping in your face.

[Tiggie]

I put an 87 trans in my 82 and I don't remember changing anything. That was in 2006, so maybe the memory bank is failing a bit. If I did change anything, it was limited to an external bolt on; didn't drop the pan on that transmission ever. The 82 trans worked in the 87 also (needed the parts car to stay mobile).

[kishy]

I'm fairly sure the cable and rod versions are fairly different...isn't the cable a "pull" and positioned with the lever pointing up, while the rod is a "push" and positioned with the lever pointing forward?

I know I've read something about needing to take it out and reinstall it clocked differently to do this.

I put an 87 trans in my 82 and I don't remember changing anything. That was in 2006, so maybe the memory bank is failing a bit. If I did change anything, it was limited to an external bolt on; didn't drop the pan on that transmission ever. The 82 trans worked in the 87 also (needed the parts car to stay mobile).

Any chance the 87 donor was carb?

It may also be possible for the rod to work on the trans set up for the cable, as long as there's enough clearance to the firewall for the rod to be routed "wrong".

It won't be particularly hard over the next few days for me to put both a CFI and SEFI car on ramps and take a couple photos.

[Tiggie]

Any chance the 87 donor was carb?

Nope, it was EFI.

If there was a difference, which is very possible, it was a lever on the outside that was an easy bolt on part. But I don't remember swapping anything.

[FatNasty]

I can't say much about the shift linkage, but as far as the TV setup, they are compatible. As long as you replace all the linkage/brackets outside the transmission, the cable (87+) and rod both turn the stud on the side of the transmission in the same direction, and it seems in the same linear fashion.

Upgrading my 84 to SEFI just required bolting up the cable setup. Would have been an easy job, but when you take the linkage off the side of the transmission you have to be really careful not to bump that stud while the nut is off. If it gets pushed in (even just 1/8"), the lever on the inside will fall off the plunger and will no longer function to change TV pressure. Have to drop the pan to fix. This mistake cost me at least a few days in the past.

[VicCrownVic]

'90-'92.5 the TV lever (and possibly the shift lever) on the side of the AOD is different and/or clocked different. So, while an '82 to '87 (and therefore '89 since it should be the same as '87) swap did not require dropping the pan, removing the external nut (1/2 inch?), removing the large internal nut, and pulling the roll pin, and being careful of the spring that I also seem to recall (this was 12 years ago, Edit: see video below), swapping into a '91 will require all of that.
Even after all of that I still never got the column shifter adjusted properly when I swapped my '89 trans into my '91, but that might just be a personal problem. (Could only shift PRN(D) but not D (maybe) and definitely not 1). I likely only swapped the TV lever arm, thinking that the shift lever itself was the same. It may be necessary to swap the shift lever as well as the TV lever for both column shift alignment and proper TV pressure.

Here is a great video on the process. Note the spring arm left of his finger at 4:11 that gadget and I were vaguely recalling, (and now that I've re-watched the video more) He talks about the spring just before the 10:00 minute mark.

[gadget73]

The shifter lever difference is a rod vs a cable setup. I don't remember the fine points but I think the lever faces the opposite way. I know floor shifter applications are different than 80-89 boxes, but I do not remember if a floor shifter setup is the same as a cable column shifter arrangement.


its one of those deals that I remember enough about it to be able to do it if I had the transmission in front of me but not enough to be able to tell you how to do it with absolute confidence. Watch the video though, it explains it. Its not hard unless that roll pin is driven in too far, then its just a complete SOB.

[Tiggie]

Ahh there's the details. Glad my parts car was an 87! 19 year old me without YouTube or reliable internet would have really been lost.