96 F-250, Diesel, 4 x 4, 84,000 mi, Last summer tranny went gunnybag while towing travel trailer, cruising down the hwy I noticed that the OD OFF was blinking, next town I came to truck died at stop sign,still had forward and reverse, however, when comming to a stop truck would lug and die, so I would throw it into neutral to keep her running, Ford Dealer told me that the torque conv went south so I had it replaced with a new ATS converter and had tranny gone thru, new clutch packs, pump, cooler...., took dealer 3 tries to get it where it would not go into fail safe mode (blinking OD OFF). Hooked up trailer tested the truck up and down hill on a blistering hot day, all worked fine, Memorial weekend this year, towing trailer, it has happened again. last year dealer exhausted all avenues, called the home experts, had area rep look at it, no one can ID or fix the problem. Anyone else run into this tranny thing?

 

I moved you from General Diesel to the proper year forum. Welcome to FTE Fordy1

 

There are several reasons that the torque converter clutch can stick on. That seems to be what's wrong here.

Low trans fluid
Missing/loose internal filter
Bad torque converter control solenoid
Short in the wiring to the torque converter control solenoid
Stuck valve in the valve body
Internal leakage
Worn pump
Bad torque converter.

One or more of those is what's wrong with yours. Unfortunately I can't narrow it down from here.

 

Thanks Mark, Suposidly all this was looked at at the dealer, I already have five weeks and $1800+ investid with no satisfaction, I am about ready to just order an all new trany from ATS, does anyone have nany other recomendations or experiance with aftermarket tranies?

 

www.racerxautomotive.com

 

Brians Truck Shop

Not cheap, but will not fail. I have had mine for 3 years without issue. Do a search on this site and TDS and see the response for the BTS. At one point several years ago, I think there were some issues with the ATS, but I have not heard any thing the last couple years.

 

Hopefully you have a aftermarket cooler, cause the stock cooler is absolute garbage. I have seen trucks run 200 plus degrees with NO LOAD, let alone a camper. Causes trannies to eat themselves. I must have posted this info about 30 times now....LOL Let us know what you find.

 

Yes I have, a larger aftermarket cooler, thanks for the heads up. Went to work this morning truck was in fail mode hard shifts, dies in reverse. after work readied myself the first hard shift, didnt happen, noticed the light was no longer indicating fail mode and tranny was shifting fine, no dieing in drive or reverse, I dont know what to think. when this happened last year the only way to clear it was at the dealer.