Hey guys, so I’ve had my econoline for a year and only drove it for a few weeks before it stalled at the top of a hill. I thought it was the engine so I paid $2500 to have it rebuilt. They said there was nothing wrong with it when they went through it.
I just finished the swap and it will only fire up and run in neutral. It will fire up in park only to die within seconds regardless of giving more throttle. When shifting to overdrive, drive, or 1, the engine bogs out and dies, much similar to when fired up while in park.
I jacked up the rear axle to remove the resistance. I’m 2wd by the way. I discovered that while running in neutral, my wheels start spinning at about 20mph. When shifting to OD, D, and 1, I must give it a lot of gas and fight to keep the engine from stalling. This is while jacked still. When braking and shifting from N to R, the engine stalls immediately. No time to give it throttle at all.
When on all four wheels, running in neutral, I can see and hear the driveline intermittently and randomly turning. So basically it’s more difficult to start the engine because there is intermittent load under it. Note: I switched carburetors so my kickdown linkage is not connected, but when I pull it out while running in N, it makes a sort of rubbing/soft grinding sound in the transmission. The van will jump forward when put in drive just before it stalls. Checked all fluids, replaced almost all parts except distributor and radiators. There is a small pinch in my transmission radiator line.
That’s all I can think of right now, but please ask whatever you want. My belief is that the engine never blew up like I thought it did and that my transmission became stuck in 3rd gear or something because when it stalled the first time on the hill, it was driving great and no problems at all for an hour or two after replacing the fuel sending unit, but when I started climbing the hill I was going maybe 45-55mph and the transmission wouldn’t downshift at all. I kept pressing the gas but it just barely made it to the top of the hill at the red light and slowly came to a stop and stalled. When I tried to turn the engine in park, I heard very loud clunky knocking sounds so I stopped trying to turn it over and towed it home.

 

Yeah sounds like your trans has failed.

 

It is the AOD automatic and it was rebuilt about 14k miles ago, which upsets me.

 

It sounds like you might have several issues going on. So your engine has been rebuilt and reinstalled but you cant keep it running?

did you change the carb and disconnect the (kick down linkage) before it stalled at t he top of a hill and you had the engine torn down?

If You have a AOD then you do not have a kick linkage. What you disconnected is throttle valve linkage and it is critical that the throttle valve pressure is set correctly or your newly rebuilt transmission will only last a few miles. My 85 E150 with a 5.0 has a rod that runs from the carb to the transmission and looks like the kick down rods used on the C6 transmission but it is not a kick down rod. I don't remember the specs but remember I had to connect a pressure gauge to a port on the side of the transmission and adjust the TV pressure with the engine idling. Adjusting the pressure has to do with the positioning of the TV rod on the carb and down at the transmission. My 88 is a bit different as it uses a cable and the cable is adjustable.

 

The engine runs perfect while the transmission is in neutral. Any other gear results in stall. I have no idea exactly how long ago the transmission was rebuilt but it looked like new inside once separated from the engine. I just don’t understand why my transmission would be allowing power to be delivered at all while in neutral. It does not compute. No matter what I do, if my engine is running, my driveline gets power.