[Unique580hp]

I am forwarding an email I receieved from someone who put an AOD in their Cobra. I am contemplating doing the same thing to mine.

Hi Scott

Love that AOD.....best thing I ever did.....but I have to listen to all
those guys at Unique giving me the gears....Bottom line...I gotta drive
it...I gotta enjoy it.....and enjoy it I do.

The AOD came out of a 1980 Mercury Marquis.....complete with the first
engine I put in the Cobra....I was on very tight budget at the time with 3
growing kids having greater needs than the car.
The car cost me $400.00.....transplanted the engine and the AOD straight
into the Cobra.....towed the rest to the junk yard, took off the alloy
whells....sold them for $100.....now have Corbra with complete powertrain
for $300.00.
Of course all worked well as I used the original carb. and linkage.....I
even wired up the 'park' location cut out on the ignition circuit...I used a
sawn off B&M shifter...cut down to 7 inches high...the cable routing comes
to the box from the rear and was a breeze with all the different brackets
B&M supply with their shifter kits.

The AOD , over a period of time got a bit slussy.....not to bad........Then
I had some engine problems.....no sweat.
Took it all out and put in an engine and tranny from a 1986 pick up
truck...this had a C4.
I dumped the old engine BUT kept the AOD.
The C4 did not work for me.....to high in the rev range at cruising
speed....I was used to the low revs when the 4th speed dropped in on the
AOD.
So I had the AOD refurbished and had a simple shift kit put in it just to
firm up the 3/4 change up......Put it back in...dumped the C4........Now I'm
really happy again.
So to answer your question, I would consider the AOD to be stock.
There were NO snags puttting it in....the drive shaft is the same length for
a C4, the splines are the same.
The AOD is actually a very workable solution for a Unique Cobra....it fits
very easily in the tunnel...plenty of room to hook up shift cables and
speedo cables.
By dropping the transmission mount, the box will angle down enough on the
engine mounts that it can be removed real easy.

The Holly hoook ups.....I am certain that I've seen Holly carbs in both the
JEGS and SUMMIT catalogues where they sell a special bracket ( $10 to $15 )
to hook Holly's and Elderbocks up to AOD's.

The only way I can hold the shift on the AOD is either in D1 or D2....the
push it up to the 'D' postion where the 3rd and 4th gears take over.

The good thing about the earlier AOD's is that there are absolutely NO
electronics associated with them....its a lovely manual affair.

I don't care what other 'Cobra' people think about auto. boxes.......I love
mine and will NEVER change to a Manual box.

If there's anything else i can tell you ., please drop me a line.

Enjoy that auto box.........................Mike