Wanted to post back and thank everyone on the forum for their contributions of information.

Pulled the trans apart, and found the forward feed bolt to in fact be about 3/4 turn loose. One of the others was also slightly loose. One of the valve body bolts (8mm) was also backed out about 3 threads. Everything else seemed tight when I took it apart.Torqued them up, put it back together with a good Trans Flush (per Mark's write-up) / Filter and it runs like a champ so far. Couldn't reproduce the reverse->no forward issue. Thanks again.

 

i second this, my dads 2000 7.3 did the same thing and shops all said he needed a new 3000 dollar trans, i dropped the valve bodies and sure enough loose feed bolts. A year later and its still going strong, i also helped two other guys out with the same problem heard both talking in stores about there trucks not moving i tolld them for 100 bucks i could fix them and id let them watch while i did it. Both trucks a 2001 and 2004 F250 had loose feed bolts, needless to say both gave me more than 100 bucks. In any 4r100 id check these bolts first betfore id let anyone other than me touch my truck!

 

 

The saga continues...

Have been driving the truck since the last post with no issues. This weekend the wife hauled 2 horses (3 horse bumper pull stock trailer - fairly light in the horse world) home about 150 miles. Not a difficult haul. Pretty flat. She got home and I noticed some "oil spots" on the rear springs and then front of horse trailer. Peeking underneath reveals that the undercarriage looks as if someone sprayed tranny fluid all over it with a hose.

Note1: I checked the tranny fluid before the wife left and it was on the stick.

She claims that it drove 'normally' (we have a 1/2 mile long hill before our house) until after the hill and about 1 mile from home. Then it started shifting a little "funny"

No oil on the dipstick when I checked in the driveway. Added 2 quarts and started it up to check the level (knowing it would probably still be low - probably empty, except that she drove it home) and it's pouring out of the drain hole in the bell housing inspection plate cover (not sure this is the right way to describe the part - it's a hole the size of a pencil at the bottom of the removable plate, front-side of the bell housing. I suspect this was where all the leakage was coming from as the pan seal, drain plug etc. looked good.

Note2: I never monkeyed with the TC plug (if it even has one).

One other thing to note: When I was doing the tranny flush after tightening the lose feed bolts, the step where I shifted through the gears to circulate the fluid, caused the transmission to spray fluid out the cooler line input connection I had disconnected (rear of transmission) when in reverse. I chalked this up to being "normal" but now I'm not so sure. To clarify..... cooler line disconnected from rear of tranny, draining into bucket. shift through gears, all is well until you hit reverse, at which point fluid seemed to blow 'backwards' into what would have been the coolant line if it wasn't dis-connected. I only mention this on the off chance that maybe I induced some sort of cooling problem when I re-assembled the valve bodies etc.

All I read indicates blown pump seal, etc. but I thought I'd share the story in case someone has other thoughts.

I've been a ford man since high school but I've about had it with this truck. The Chevy guys are teasing me. I'm not sure I can take it any longer.

 

That spraying fluid indicates a partially plugged cooler. The truck getting hot an leaking from the torque converter area also points to a partially plugged cooler.

 

Thanks mark... one question:

Doesn't the tranny have 1 line in from the cooler, and one line out TO the cooler? How would the gear make any difference (only sprays "out" the input line when in reverse...)

As always, thanks for chiming in.

 

Line pressure is higher in reverse than in the forward gears. Therefore the flow is higher in reverse, so if there is a partial plug it will first show up in reverse.

 

Well, I pulled the microfine inline filter ( looked aftermarket) and cut it open. Was pretty trashed. Left that out as the local nappy didn't have one. Also flushed the cooler line/cooler from the return back (of the transmission) and out the "output" (higher middle of the transmission) - Blew the whole thing out with air for about 5 minutes. Hooked it back up, leaving the return line in the bucket and ran some transmission fluid through, re-filling the cooler/lines and hopefully blowing out any remaining debris/cleaner into the bucket.

I ran the truck in reverse with the return line left unconnected and still had some "backward" drainage. Not sure what else I'd do. There's a good healthy flow of fluid coming out of that line in all gears.

Test-ran the truck hooked up to my android OBD2 app (Torque), and watched the transmission temp. Seemed to top out around 165 deg. - Was 70 deg ambient.

Fluid remaining in the trans was still pink-ish and didn't smell burnt.
Guess I'll watch it for awhile and see what happens. Thanks for the pointers Mark.

 

you reverse drainge problem is the cross over pipe spring is bad, its suppose to open when the fluid is hot only. This is a common problem with them going bad. heres a few links for new ones
E40D 4R100 Transmission cooler bypass valve kit Sonnax 36605-02K

 

Thanks much - Checked out the parts and it looks easy enough - However out of curiosity, what's the implications of this failure? If it's not replaced?

Thanks again.

Other note - drove the truck again today, maybe 20 miles. Trans never climbed over 150.

 

One last item here... Mark, I don't understand how I dumped 2 gallons of trans fluid on the road (original issue) when the trans 'overheated', and yet now it holds fluid and seems to run ok. I would expect to have blown some sort of a seal where it simply won't hold fluid. Why then, but not now?

I'm just concerned that whatever the issue was, will rear its head again.

 

No, that's wrong. It is supposed to open when the cooler circuit is restricted. If it only opened hot then you would never send hot ATF to the coolers, so you might as well take them out because they don't do anything.
If the torque converter gets really hot the converter hub seal gets soft and leaks, sometimes badly. Once it cools it will seal again.

 

My 2001 F 450 (7.3 and 4r100) has been out of commission for more than six months due to having a tree fall on it last year. It has only been started and moved as necessary to repair the truck ( probably started a dozen teimes a week and moved a total of twenty miles in that time). Nearing completion of the repairs and looking forward to driving it again I drove the truck a total of twenty yards to give it a wash and wax when my transmission problem began. I had moved the truck at barely over idle and took my foot off the accelerator to make a slow turn, but when I pressed on the accelerator again the transmission did not pull. No forward gears, but has reverse. No noises whatsoever. I found this thread immediately upon searching for a fix and did drop the pan and valve bodies to check the feed bolts ( they were tight and valves ( they were free). New fluid and filter, but no change in the problem. I bought the truck a year ago with 175,000 on the odometer and did so with the condition that the seller have all the fluids and filters changed before I picked it up as I had to drive it a couple thousand miles to get it home. Upon draining the pan the fluid was dirty but not burned, so I guess the fluid had not been changed as I requested. Drain plug magnet only had a little fuzz and no clutch material present in the pan, but little black dust in the botttom of the bucket after the drained fluid had settled. Oddly, there were 9 check ***** above the separator plate and five above the center valve body instead of the normal 8 and 4. The tranny had been remanufactured, so someone may have been a little check ball crazy, since the two extras had no check holes to close off. Had a friend who is a deisel mechanic for a concrete company run diagnostic, but other than a speed sensor code, nothing that would seem to cause the problem. I've rebuild a couple of AOD's, but I'm not a trouble shooter. Could really use some expertise to determine how much trouble I'm in and how much more I'm going to be into this truck for before I can make use of it again.

 

No forward gears means a rebuild. There really isn't any way around it.

Does it move in 1 or 2? That may narrow down what failed, but no matter what it was the trans needs a rebuild. Sorry.

 

Thanks for the reply Mark. No, 1 & 2 don't work either, only reverse. I was hopeful after refilling the pan and watching the PTO tach while shifting thru all the gears for five minutes trying to circulate the fluid before trying to move the truck. The tach gained about 50 rpm on every shift to a gear which made it feel like the gears were catching, but I figured out that it was only the computor reacting to the shift commands. Odd critters, these 4r100s. If something is going to break I want it to make some noise first and declare it's intentions.