Hi,

38k and 15 months old.

Runs fine except...

Can be in cruise or not, tow/haul or not, but need to be pulling a decent hill (none I Florida) with 7k+ trailer. Running level with air bags. Regardless of speed, cruising at 50, 58, or 65, beginning incline and turbo boost builds normally to maintain speed to the point when it needs to downshift. BAM!!, not just a clunk, 90% of the time- scares the hell out of me. I can make it do it on an incline empty, but it it difficult. If because initial speed is 50ish, a second downshift to 4th may be needed. A bang only 50% of the time.

No codes.

Regardless of the degree incline, (toughest in the NC/KY areas is 6-7% grade, can avoid harsh shift by backing off on throttle and manually downshifting to 5th or 4th, depending upon speed.

Can "make" it do it on level terrain with 7k trailer if I slowly back off throttle and slow from 65 to 50 or so and punch it, but not too hard. Too hard and it goes to 4th, usually with just a modest clunk. Just right and I get 5th with a loud, and I mean loud BAM. Even the tech was impressed.

Afraid to hook up my 17k 5er and take off for the next 3 months, which is the reason I bought the truck to replace my 11...

Carrier bearing has grease coming out of it (400k on various duallies and never seen this), but dealer says not an issue.

Ford told dealer that it had no idea, and advised tech to do a lot of pin point electrical testing and everything checks out. Next stop is the inner workings of transmission.

I have been without it and work for 3 days because of backlog. Running two day load tomorrow, then back in for tranny work.

Any advice/cautions before before give it back to them?

Thanks in advance.

 

Mine did that for a bit, so I did a relearn on the trans and all is well now. I thought something was going to break, as hard as it would slam in a downshift.

 

Maybe it would be best if they re-flashed the TCM and let the truck learn again. I'm suspecting you may have a bad shift solenoid in the transmission though. Don't worry, if it is, it's an easy fix.

 

Mine shifts hard on a 6-5 downshift when I have a load on. It'll do this maybe 75% of the time. No loud noise though, just a very hard shift. The 5-6 shift is harder than the rest too. I don't get a big noise on either one, just can feel it when it does it.

Why do you say you miss the wide track front end?

 

Monty,
Thank you. Will update when I know more. Fyi, I ran fine until about 6 months/10k mile ago, and got worse quickly. About two months ago I was in the dealer for 4th screen pdf "%full," and dealer said there were several PCM Re flashes since my original build, so I paid just a bit more for the PCM flash too. No joy after the relearn. 1 month ago I had to code for fuel bank one, and dealers Re flashed the PCM with the "sticking valves during regen" hoping hoping would help me me with the code, even though official Ford answer is "we know the code, but have no fix yet). I did get the code again last week, and simply cleared it like the dealer did. Dealer was too busy to diagnose the Tranny that visit. Tranny re-learn was the same. Just finished load haul. Hope they can get back so dealer can get to my tranny wednesday.

Player, if you have never driven a 450 or a tow boss 350, do yourself a favor. Don't. Wide track front axle makes turning radius is about 10 feet smaller.

 

So, if I do then I'll want one?

 

Exactly!!!

 

Update:

Two more days in the shop. Ford tells tech to drop tranny pan and test. Everything tests ok. Ford says button it up and re-flash, and send customer on his way. Dealer won't do anything Ford won't pay for; a doesn't know what to do without guidance from Ford.

Will report back.