Guys,

I know this transmission is notorious but what would cause this failure?

In Dec 2000 I had a complete rebuild including the transfer case on my 94 F350 to the tune of $3200. This truck is not my daily driver, does not plow, tows only snowmobiles, and gets mostly highway driving (granted in the mountians).

Now 20,000 miles later, my reverse is slipping like crazy and the trans place that did the work says will need another rebuild for at least $1600 plus hard parts.

They won't take it apart unless I agree to pay $300 tear down charge.

Any thoughts as to why this would go so quick?

My F250 with 125k tows regularly but I have never had a problem w/ the tranny.

Any input/advice would be appreciated.

Skip

 

Did they replace the coolers when the first trans went?

When a transmission fails it sends metal bits throughout the system. Many will get stuck in the coolers. Some places flush the coolers, but that is only partially effective. The coolers will continue to release small metal particles for a very long time. These bits can get into the new transmission and cause it to fail.

The only failsafe method is to replace the air to oil cooler and the water to oil cooler inside the radiator. You can replace the whole radiator, but many radiator shops can change just the cooler cheaper than the whole radiator.

 

I used to have this same problem in my Bronco. What I did was buy the HD E4OD!! It's the heavy duty version of the E4OD. Let me tell you, you can feel it when you put the truck into gear. It doesn't smoothly engage it engages with AUTHORITY!!!!! Also the tranny itself holds 17 quarts of fluid!!! The only down side is the cost. The tranny cost me $5900!!!! But in my opinion it was worth it!!!

 

wow and in US dollars, i've had mine rebuit twice $1500 Canadian, each time, last time seems to be working fine, good luck

 

I have a couple of people(one of them owned a tranny shop) tell me the best way to get a good one is to buy one from ford. They have made several improvements to the E4OD and a genuine ford tranny is guaranteed to have them all.

This is just what I have been told.
Good luck

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mark Kovalsky
[B]Did they replace the coolers when the first trans went?



Mark,

Sorry for the late reply but I had to dig out the service ticket.

No, they did not replace the coolers.


One other question, should the new transmission have had any kind of service within 20k miles. (I took it back within 2 weeks for a check for the warranty but nothing after that.) The shop owner's wife indicated I should have had it serviced before now. Checking threads on this site, the service intervals run from 30k to 100k+ to none....

I have my F-250 (daily driver and frequent tow vehicle) checked every 30K...don't think I've ever had the fluid changed (now over 125K) and never had a problem with the E40D. Am I playing with fire with my F250, or just lucky?

Now I'm worried about my F-250. Skip

 

I agree with the guy that said to buy a new tranny. I got a new from ford a AXOD for my car. I was going to have it rebuilt but the warenty the shop gave me was 12,000 miles. So i went paso ford and the tranny had a warrenty of 24,000 miles. so Id just buy a new one the warenty for them are 36,000 miles and get HD E-4OD. mine had a less warenty because i'd purchased it a tear ago and motorcraft changed there warenty to 36,000 miles.

 

Really they should last a 100k miles but if you have ever built a automatic transmission you might wonder have they ever last as long as they do.

 

I ment to say durabillity

 

Ford doesn't recommend any service other than checking fluid level within 20K miles. The transmission shop may have different requirements...

 

You didn't say whether this rig is a diesel. A chain shop or swap-shop tranny won't last 50,000 miles in a diesel, and probably not much longer in a gasser either. A reputable rebuilder that hand-builds his trannies on the premises can bomb-proof an E4OD with dozens of upgrades and improvements for under $2500. I'd be interested to know if the 36,000 mile warranty mentioned by Beastly 302 applies to diesels??????

 

Curmudgeon,

It is a turbo diesel (not powerstroke).

What are the upgrades I should ask for to "bullet proof" this thing?

I thought a rebuild is a rebuild is a rebuild? Thanks in advance for your input.

Skip

 

The most important upgrade is the heavy duty torque converter built for turbo diesels. The weaker version used in the early 90's and sometimes used in cheap rebuilds overheats and shreds, sending shrapnel into the fluid flow and contaminating the whole system all the way to the radiator. Then as Kovalsky said, the swap shop throws in another unit without replacing the contaminated coolers and it fails within a year. This is what gave the E4OD such a bad reputation. Also make sure they use steel planetary carriers instead of aluminum, and a shift kit designed to reduce shift lag time (you'll get very firm shifts and less internal heat). I think there are also some beefier internal clutches and solenoids available, and if you will be towing get a high capacity heat conductive pan and an auxiliary cooler. I think there are other tweaks to improve fluid flow and reduce heat but I don't know much about these. Prepare to pay up to $2500 for a good hand-built tranny and it will pay you back. Mine (in a '91 diesel) now has 167,000 miles on it.

 

Crurmudgeon,

Thanks for the great info. In the last couple days the shop has called twice trying to kiss and make up. They say in the interest of "customer satisfaction" they arre willing to "really work with me". Not sure when, but when I do get it fixed will definitely get the hd torque converter and steel planertary carriers.

Wish I had your advice 20k miles ago!!! Skip

 

ATF comes out of the TC and goes to the cooler, then back to lube and cool the moving parts. For the Panther platform cars, Ford makes a filter kit designed to catch debris in the return line from the cooler. Sounds like a filter in the return line after a rebuild is cheap insurance.