E4OD Getting Closer to Fixed

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Oct 30, 2022 | 05:59 PM

bwalrus

Thread Starter

Trailering

Joined: Sep 2022

Posts: 17

Likes: 2

From: Orange County, California

E4OD Getting Closer to Fixed

Hello friends. This is going to be a bit of a long post with lots of details, I am hoping to solve my E4OD leaking problem. Before the details, a summary:

Bought a 92 F150 with 147,000 over Labor Day. It's original problem seemed to be a faulty front transmission pump seal, as it spewed fluid every time the transmission was put under a load. We (my son and I) did a BUNCH of research and got to work. Here is what we did:

Pulled transmission
Inspect torque converter neck (small amount of wear, polished up with fine scotchbrite, wear was not noticeable after)
Flush transmission cooler lines
Pull and rebuild front pump including the following
- Superior valve body kit from transmission bench (used their videos to guide)
- New Motorcraft front pump seal
- New bushing
- New pump to case gasket
- New front pump o ring
- New teflon rings all around
- New pump thrust washer
- New pump to case bolt sealing washers
As we were reinstalling the front pump it didn't seem to be lining up correctly and decided to pull it out and take a closer look and discovered the clip that holds the piston return spring was loose, so we went ahead and pulled the friction plates and coast clutch and reseated the piston return spring. After reassembling the coast clutch assembly we lined it back up and slid it back into place and reassembled the friction plates.
After this, we were able to get the front pump lined up nicely and it seemed to set into place perfectly, using a star pattern as we tightened down to pump to case bolts, all torqued to spec. After the front pump was reinstalled we insured everything was lined up correctly by moving the input shaft fore and aft as well as spinning it, everything in the trans moved just fine.
Prefilled torque converter with 2 quarts of fluid and reinstalled.
Moved trans into position and bolted it back up to the bell housing.
Installed flex plate to torque converter nuts
Bolted up crossmember
Pulled pan and replaced filter and pan gasket
Reconnected cooler lines
Reconnected wiring harness
Reconnected shifters
Reinstalled driveshafts
Pre filled trans with 5 quarts before startup
Started truck and immediately added 5 more quarts while shifting truck from drive to reverse.
Took truck off jack stands and drove it a few hundred feet, all seemed well, no leaks

We installed a trans temp gauge the next day to monitor temp. We drove it around for a couple of days with no issues. Then:

It started to rev up a lot before it would shift from 1-2, sometimes requiring backing off the throttle just enough and then it would shift.
After this, we began shifting from 1-2 manually and it worked just fine, then bringing it up to drive when we wanted to be in third would result in it shifting into 3rd quickly after and 4th once up to the necessary speed.
Truck seemed to do fine once shifted manually so we continued driving it the rest of the night, seemed to shift 2-3 rough a few times but not too bad.
The next morning we drove it roughly 20 miles to the dump and back (less than 500lbs of cargo) during all of this the trans temp never went any higher than 185ish
When I returned home I noticed fluid dripping out of the inspection port again, which turned into a solid leak once i started the truck (roughly 1 cup every 5 minutes of it running, enough to be concerning) I checked the torque converter drain bolt and it was tight.
I plugged in my code scanner and got a 622 “shift solenoid circuit fault” This is presumably one of the connectors loose but I’m not quite sure, there was one connector that had one damaged locking tab but seemed to lock in just fine.

Now the truck sits while we try to figure out what to do next, maybe get an inspection camera and try to get around the torque converter and see where the leak is coming from, so far my thoughts are a bum sealing washer or a crack somewhere. Due to the way things went back together I doubt that the pump to case gasket, pump o ring, or front pump seal is sitting incorrectly as it would be hard to push any of those out of place on the reinstallation and it would be clear if they were, but I’m not 100% sure. Would love to hear anyone's thoughts on what the next right move might be. I am aware that there's a high likelihood that I will have to pull the trans and front pump again and inspect everything thoroughly. Let me know what you’d do?