I just bought a 1986 F-250 4x4 XLT Lariat with a 6.9l diesel engine.
It has a moderately new turbo kit in it and the whole front suspension was overhauled in '08. The receipts tell me they put around $1800 in the front suspension, $1600 in the turbo kit, and $200 in the rear suspension + a 2" lift kit.

This was all done in '08.

I paid $2700 for the truck and heres what I've done and problems I'm having with the truck:

~2 new batteries - $225.00
~8 new glowplugs - $215.00

Now the transmission is acting up. When I slam on the brakes I hear grinding noises coming from the transmission and the transfer case. Today I had to stop and nearly rear ended a lady because an animal ran across the road and I heard the grinding noises again. I turned the truck off a few times and messed with it and finally got the noises to stop but now my truck will NOT go into park. I have to put it in neutral. A guy took a look at it today and thought a bolt came off of the linkage in the transmission pan and said that I'd have to take the entire pan off and bolt it back on and then fill it back up with fluid.

I've checked my tranny fluid and transfer case fluid, they are right were they should be... I've checked all of the obvious causes and I can't figure out whats wrong?

Do I really have to tear my tranny pan off and go buy new tranny fluid?
Grrrrr...

Did i get ripped off?

Thanks guys,

Andrew

 

Nope, its just what happens with older rigs. With the trans grinding sounds it almost seems like your tcase was engaged. IMHO parting that truck out would net 3000-3500 or more depending upon various factors. So no. If you expect 100% no hassles buy new. Sounds like you actually got a screaming deal.

 

Okay great! I'm 17 and using my own money to fix this truck up and I just didn't want to pour all my money into this truck to later find out I got ripped off. You re-assured me, thank you!

I'm hoping to find a Snow Plow for the winter so I can make some money to help pay off the truck and maybe a little extra cash for the summer! Haha!

I like the truck in your avatar. It's in great shape! The parking lot it's in looks identical to my school parking lot! Whereabouts do you live if you don't mind me asking?

 

Does sound like you got a great deal for all the work in the truck already, so no I'd say you didn't get ripped off. Trans problems are never fun, been through them with every slushbox truck I've owned.

Is the grinding constant, or only when moving? Does it stop when the truck is in N or is it constant? The more details you post, the more folks can help.

If the linkage inside the tranny was out of place, you'd be having trouble putting it in park, but the other gears would be out of place in relation to where your shifter is. Does it shift down to 1st or 2nd properly? Can you feel it shift right into D or R from N? Or does it hesitate?

Pull the pan, at minimum, see where the linkage is at, and check the pan for metal shavings.
Folks here will do their best to help out as much as possible, but depending on what's going on in there, check out the Ford Transmission Forums as well: Ford Transmission Forum
Stuart Anderson over there has walked me through all the problems I've had with my T-Bird's Trans over the years. He knows more about transmissions than I know about anything...

 

Oregon, west side college east side for home. Yeah I got it for $700 rust free runner. Granted it needs work but hell for a runner $700 I practically stole it. 460 gas and just told the PO told me he got 10-12 when he drove it so I am satisfied with 10 hope it can get that. Only think I just hope your injectors are good being a diesel. I'm 19 myself, and all throughout high school I wanted a diesel pickup. A lot of my friends had them and would rag on my because I had a gasser. Well I paid mine off in cash and they got theirs on payments, 4/5 couldn't make payments a few months and the trucks got repossessed. Some had maintenance issues they spent on others just bought too much truck for what they could earn money wise. Needless to say my gasser Dodge,kept me going no issues, they either bummed rides with me or drove cars loo. It is doing good its been paid off since I bought it and I have now bought a second truck.

 

Thanks for you're help and questions, I can tell you are already going to be helpful! (:
Most people only address and answer one of my questions and leave my other questions unanswered.

When the grinding starts, It starts out somewhat slow. Then it starts to speed up. No matter if I'm at a stand still or moving... It continues to grind even in Neutral, I have to turn the truck off and on a few times and move the shifter through the gears to get it to stop.

It won't go into park at all anymore after today, It moves halfway from "R" towards "P" and stops...
As for the other gears being out of place; you have to put the orange line halfway between "D"rive and "N"eutral to get it into Neutral... It shifts into 1st, 2nd, and 3rd okay...
It's always been a little hesitant when shifting between 2nd gear and 3rd gear, it's always shifted a little on the harder side from 1st and 2nd.

My friend is going to pull the pan off tomorrow morning and take a look, he is also going to have his shop teacher take a look at it! I gave them like 13 quarts of transmission fluid and a new filter. So I hope they'll be able to fix the linkage problem or what I hope is only a linkage problem!

 

Its not too hard to pull the pan, but if he will do it for free thats good. If I were you, normally what occurs is you bribe a buddy with some cold ones and ya swap the trans out. If you have to do that go to a manual.

 

It does sound like your shift linkage inside popped out of place. Almost the exact same issue I had with my T-bird. I couldn't park it on any incline since it wouldn't pull the rod up enough for the trans to stop it from rolling away (no parking brake) and the gears wouldn't catch in the right places. Would take a while to shift if I didn't have it in the sweet spot (fluid wasn't able to go full pressure halfway between gears).

Glad to hear your buddy's teacher will be checking it out too. Hope you'll be around so you can see the guts of that trans when they open it up. They're much less intimidating once you get in there, it starts to make sense how they work.

 

Wow! You live fairly far away from where I thought you would have lived Haha. I live in the middle of Indiana, right in the rust belt! My truck has the usual 1" wide rust around the corners of the back wheel wells, but besides that old 3 tone blue is solid! I love diesel, I hope to get into biodiesel and run that in hopes to save money!

The good thing about your 460 gas is you have more horsepower and you're truck will, takeeeee offffff compared to an ole' diesel.
I'm getting anywhere from 9 to 13 miles to the gallon depending on my speed and other factors. I only have a 3 speed and no overdrive. I wish I did!

Yeah I paid in cash, thank god!

Yep for free! My friend's taking it in to his shop class that he takes.

I will be sure to update you guys about what he finds out tomorrow!
I wont be able to see it because I'll be in school while he's in shop class, I'll ask him to take pictures and hopefully post them here tomorrow!

Thanks,

Andrew

 

Sounds like you made a good pic then buddy. Turbo that diesel and run a 5spd or 6spd and your truck will be a screamer. Nothing like a diesel either they are just nice all around. Hahah I've noticed my home town looks like the middle states of America. We farm wheat just like most of the area, and it all goes overseas. Have you thought about painting it? With that shop class I would see if they would paint it for you. I've heard they can do good paint jobs for cost basically. The kids want to learn and the school breaks even so its win win there. I would rhino line everything. I don't deal with much rust but I don't want my rust free truck to get anything rusty so I am going to do that.

 

They said the would in spring, I guess there is a line of cars waiting to be painted. As long as I provide the paint and supplies, they have the paint booth and everything else and will do it for free. They ask for a donation which of course they will receive! Haha!

What two colors would you pick? Or would you go one solid color?
I was thinking like one solid color; Midnight Blue or Navy Blue...
or;
Maroon and Silver
or;
Dark Blue and White

 

I'm painting my truck hugger orange with a stripe or two of black down it. Ideally I will paint my truck like that with rhinolined black rack and winch bumper and lower quarterpanels. The interior will be the body color and black. That color is both my high school color as well as my college color so it works out great. May get sponsored to shop up to games in it and drive the mascots around! The only thing that I do now know about is the black stripes may be more trouble then its worth but the lower quarter panels and bumper and rack outta finish it off nice. By far my hardest decision was paint colors but I have wanted an Orange rig ever since i was going to buy an IH scout that was restored and I couldn't buy it. I would look through the 80-86 show your truck thread as well as other peoples rigs to see what you might like kind of what I did. If I didn't go orange and black i would run with red and black rhinoline!

 

How do you like the nissan orange?

I think that'd be a great color to paint your truck!

I can't wait to see the finished pics of this rig! It sounds like it will look amazing!

 

Yeah I do like it. But I like more of the hugger orange look that looks more bronze.

 

More of these with less black.




Similar to this scout