Hi guys I have a 95 F150 with the 4R70w transmission. I have lost overdrive. Basic symptoms, neutrals out when it should go into OD and no 2nd gear engine braking. I also get a real hard shift into reverse.

I've changed the fluid multiple times, pulled the valve body and verfied that the OD servo c-clip was still in place, and the OD band seems to be in place as well. I did have a missing check ball which I replaced. No codes come up when I had the truck read. When the OD problem first occurred I did get the flashing OD light. That light hasn't come on since. Despite having dropped the trans pan about 3 times now, there is always a ton of black dust particles (finer than sand) left in the pan. The magnet gets pretty gummed up too.

It was today that I pulled the valve body, replaced the check ball, and inspected the other components. I took it for a test drive and no OD. It did seem to work at first and did slam into OD twice when reved a bit. After that it would completely neutral out and reve high.

So my question is, does this sound like a worn OD band or a worn torque converter?

Any help would be fantastic!

PS the transmission was rebuild roughly 20,000 miles ago.

 

If it was the torque converter it would be a problem in every gear, not just fourth gear. The problem is in the transmission, not the torque converter. It's rebuild time. Sorry.

 

Rebuild the whole thing? Even after 20,000 miles since the last rebuild? Or just replace the OD Band? The trans works fine in other gears. Rough shift into reverse though.

 

That depends on what everything inside looks like. If it looks like new, reuse it. If it's worn out, replace it.

 

I hope you got a warranty with that rebuild. And they forgot to put a check ball in? Sounds like a real quality shop.

 

Actually they did put the check ball in but they never deburred the hole they enlarged for the shift kit. One large burr shaved the ball down until it was small enough to push through the hole it would normally close off. I fixed that issue yesterday hoping to fix my missing overdrive problem.

 

How would you rebuild only part of a transmission?
The cost is all most all labor!
If you take a trans out of the vehicle and open it up all the filth which is harmless on the outside starts working it way to the inside where it jambs up the valves
Once you use one seal from the rebuilding kit the kit is incomplete.
How do you only take apart, clean and inspect the bad parts even if you have a god idea of the main problem what else is on its way out?
You could reuse the frictions if they look good but how badly do you want to save $20 or $40 on a job this big?

Sorry but been wanting to say this for years

 

So I already had the transmission rebuild 15,000 miles ago. I did end up buying everything to do a complete rebuild minus a pump and a few other larger parts. Turns out everything in the transmission was still good. Only the overdrive band was bad. It was completely burn down to the steel band. So I replaced it with a new Kevlar band and upgraded the OD shift kit and put it back together. It total it cost me $900 to buy everything including a transmission jack.

Doing the job myself saved me $2000 if I was to have it rebuild by the same guy or $700 if I bought a remanufactured transmission without a shift kit.

Either way it was a huge win for me. I save money and learned so much about transmissions.