I just bought a 1997 F250 with a 460 and E4OD. When I test drove it the transmission seemed pretty tight, it accelerated pretty good from a dead standstill without revving up very high first. When I got it home I tried doing a stall speed test because I thought it would be a good test to see if the transmission would slip when trying to pull a heavy load since that is what it will be used for. When I did the test I could never get the rear tires to break loose and I was on dirt. The motor just revved up and stayed at the same RPM with no movement of the truck. Is this normal if you have good rear brakes or is there something wrong with the transmission? My 1995 f150 with a 4r70w trans will easily break the rear tires loose when doing this test.

So I'm trying to figure out if my transmission is nearing rebuild time, because it will cost more to rebuild the trans than I paid for the truck, or if this is normal? And also is there any more tests I could do to see how good the transmission is?

 

For what it's worth, every V8 Ford I've owned could powerbrake (do a burnout by holding brakes on and applying throttle) to some degree or another.

I doubt there's a problem with the trans though... what's the max RPM you get when trying to do this? How hard are you applying the brakes?

The 'ol 460 might just be down on power. My 351 felt like a wimpy minivan motor when I brought her home. I just thought she might need a good tuneup and possibly need the factory cats swapped out because everything else was in great mechanical shape, but when I got to checking the timing I found it WAY off. Put it a degree or two past stock advance and now she feels MUCH better... before she couldn't even break the tires loose from a dead stop.

 

See, I figured it ought to be able to powerbrake. I was pressing the brake fairly hard but not as hard as I could. And I don't know what the rpm was because truck doesn't have a tach, but it sounded like it was around 2000 rpm. I also haven't done a tuneup to it yet because I trying to see whether its worthy of one or if I should get rid of it. It does have 160k miles on it and only has 3.55 gears so that could be part of the problem too.

Thanks.

 

A 460 with 3.55 gears should be able to do a tire-roasting burnout down the street, around the corner, then rip a donut and come back home pulling into your yard with a powerslide!

Ok maybe not that spectacular, but it should be able to powerbrake. My 351 with 3.55 gears could light 'em up... I've only tried breaking them loose after advancing the timing, never done a burnout... but I know it could.

I still think that if the transmission was slipping, you'd have noticed it on the drive home. The only test I can think of to check the internal condition, besides driving it, would be a line pressure test (if low, could be leaking seals or a failing pump) and the stall test that you already did. You could also drop the pan and look for large amounts of clutch debris... although if it ain't ever been opened up I would expect to find a lot in there anyway, simply from normal wear. Don't forget to put antisieze on the pan bolts when you put them back in.

Got a heavy load to haul? Just try it out and see how she does.

My experience with automatic transmissions (and one of the reasons I don't like them) is that they take a dump whenever they feel like it. I've never had an auto trans give me an early warning that it was fixin' to fail... ever. Not saying it never happens, because it obviously has for others, but for me it's been work or play one day and then it's missing gears or just plain won't move the next day.

I still think your 460 is just down on power.

 

If it's slipping, more than likely your fluid will start to look/smell burnt instead of being a clean pink/red.

Also, at highway speed (in OD), a slight press of the accelerator will cause about a 200 RPM jump as the torque converter unlocks, before you actually accelerate. You'll also see the same 200 RPM drop as you level off your speed and the torque converter locks up. If it's slipping, this likely won't happen.

Of course, this is all in addition to sloppy shifts as you accelerate from a stop and the tranny shifts up through the gears. Or from a stop it will rev, then slam into gear.

Jason

 

It must just have really good rear brakes then, because it doesn't seem to slip going down the road and it seems to shift pretty good. The oil also looks really good in it also. I can't really test the rpm jump going down the road because of no tach.

Thanks guys, I guess I'll just keep driving it and hope for the best. I'll probably do a complete trans oil change just to be safe.

 

Dixie460, that burnout description is off the chain! Can't stop laughing!

 

I just bought a 91 with the 460; guy said he just put new plugs in it but it seemed like it was low on power, Got it home and checked the gap. They were .05 short. Ran like a different truck on the correct gap, lol.

 

Sounds good, enjoy your new truck!

Haha, thanks eakermeld!