Had my E40d come apart in my 89 Dually, and got a 22k mile unit from a 89 camper that had a rear fire. Everything with the swap went fine, but now that it is running and driving I have no speedometer, and it is shifting hard. As this is an 89 I don't believe the 2 coincide, but was hoping someone had some input.

I will be taking a drill to the speedomter cable this evening to see if I broke it in the swap sometime, any ideas on the hard shifts?

Thanks

 

The hard shifts are because the computer needs the speed signal to determine when to shift the transmission. Can't really shift gears properly when you don't know how fast you're going, right? So the computer is operating the transmission in fail-safe mode which is where it maxes out the line pressure (to prevent slipping) and uses a predefined set of parameters to determine when to shift, such as RPM and throttle position.

If you look, you probably also have a flashing OD OFF light warning you that the computer has detected a problem (no speed signal) which affects transmission operation.

 

I thought that was only on 92 and newer. What you are saying is that the speedometer cable...if broke....would somehow send a signal to the computer? It looked as if this was just mechanical?

 

No flashing OD light yet either, but may not have driven far enough?

 

I'm not sure how they did it with the full sized trucks, but on the rangers, the speedometer cable had a sensor where it went into the tailshaft on the transmission. The full-sizes might have a sensor up at the speedmeter itself, I'm not sure though.

Either way. With no speedometer, the computer won't know when to shift the transmission.

 

Checked the cable, and it is indeed good. My question is when I put my finger through the cable hole, I am not feeling any gear whatsoever that would spin the cable? Is there a different type of setup anyone is aware of that would not have the gear? Wondering if I need to remove the tailshaft and buy a gear....

 

Yes, pre-92 speedo's are cable driven but an E4OD transmission is computer controlled. The computer needs to see speed data to determine shift points, so there has to be a speed sensor somewhere. 92+ is on top of the rear axle, not sure if that's the case with the older trucks with cable drive speedo's.

I've seen that setup Lead Head mentions with the sensor right at the transmission and the speedo cable passing thru it. If that ain't the case with your truck then as he mentioned you could take a look at the cluster itself. Should be able to spot it fairly easily.

92+ don't have the gear on the trans output shaft. You sure that trans is from an 89?
Don't think pre-92 4x4's did either. Pretty sure the speedo connected to the transfer case output on those.

 

I was told it was from a 89, I'm going to guess that indeed it is not, as the rear output shaft does not have the grooves.

Please tell me their is a snap ring setup or something that will allow me to adapt this trans output shaft. Currently have in truck and hating the thought of tearing back out and tearing the whole trans down.....

 

There is a snap ring, and it does need to be removed in order to change the tailshaft. Unfortunately, everything else inside the transmission is behind that snap ring - including the tailshaft...

Did this transmission come out of a camper that had a parking drum brake on the output shaft? Apparently those E4ODs used a different speedometer drive than standard E4ODs from the same era.

Also you didn't mention if your truck was a 4x2 or a 4x4. If it's a 4x4, the speedometer cable goes into the transfercase, not the transmission.

 

Does there happen to be an adapter??? Yes this did come from a camper, supposedly and 89 camper........so all my research told me it should be a swap, and now I'm finding this. Any thoughts?

 

Did the camper have an output shaft mounted parking brake on the transmission?

 

That I don't know, there wasn't anything like that when I received the trans.

 

If it was just a standard 2WD E4OD with the long tailshaft from an '89, it should have the speedo drive.

 

It is 2wd, from an 89 camper supposedly, but it does not have the gears that are built on to the rear output shaft. The shaft length is the same as the one I removed as it is currently running and driving.

I am thinking this is not from an 89 and hoping someone makes a gear that will go on the output shaft...

 

Just to make sure you're not overlooking anything silly, the seedometer cable still has its gear on it, right? You're 100% sure the drive gear on the shaft inside the housing is not there?

Generally the E4ODs that didn't have the drive gear on the shaft had the speedometer cable hole blocked off with a plug, or it wasn't even there at all on later transmissions.