I drive a 4.6, 2 wheel drive supercab made in 2004, this has been a great vehicle and covered 25000 miles since February this year. Over the last few days the gearbox wants to climb up through the gears far to quickly when you drive it gently, if you drive it hard its not a problem it will hang in and drive normal. The truck can get into third before 30 miles an hour, the other thing I notice is that as you slow to a stop the gearbox is still gripping slightly needing more braking effort. most of my work is above 40 mph so its not stopping me from using it. The problem is that I live in UK and may struggle to find a dealer who has the right computer that can talk to it. Anybright ideas first thing to identify is whether it is electrical of mechanical fault.

 

Tough questions because they assume the characteristic of the truck is a problem.

The truck has a 'learning' or adaptive transmission controller.
It changes its driving habits to match what it thinks you want.
You can reset this by removing the negative battery cable and letting the volatile memory flush. The owners manual covers how to 'train it' after this step.

It is trying to save you gas. The quicker you get into top gear, the better your gas mileage is, so it's set so if you drive it lightly, it will assume you are trying to save fuel and it will try to help by getting into high gear faster.

On the slowing down with the truck, it is ‘clutching’ or ‘freewheeling’ the transmission. Those have always been rare in the UK. This used to be common in the states, back when people cared about gas mileage. A Saab from the late sixties is the only ‘common’ UK car that I recall used freewheeling. This is distinctly different from the old Brit OD cars. Unlike American Iron they used the secondary transmission just as a gear, not as a gear plus freewheeling. Oddly, the Swedes used it exactly opposite, using the freewheeling, but skipping the extra gear...

Unlike a non-freewheeling TC, it will disconnect as you slow down, rather than use the engine as a brake. This saves wear and tear on the engine (engine braking was only used because old drum brakes were not adequate).
This actually saves you a lot of gas, once you learn how to use it.

Until you start to adapt to it, your brakes get a lot of unnecessary wear.
Trick is to take your foot off earlier. The truck will ‘coast’ a long way. So rather than expect the truck to ‘suck down’ assume it will act like a stick with the clutch in, and let off earlier, and use the brakes slightly sooner.
Or release the OD, and it will act like an old style transmission.

If you buy any of the tuners (Superchips, Diablo, etc.) it will let you adjust the shift points. This is a 200-400 dollar solution, but it's not needed. At least for this...
Hope this helps
Chris

 

Thanks for the guidance Chris, two things first I have scanned the owners book and can't find the 'train it' section you suggest is there, any idea where? the XLT only has the mini info system.
Secondly this may have a bearing on the situation, I have just had the car converted over to run on LPG (propane) gas, it runs fine but displays the little yellow engine symbol on the dash, the handbook suggests its control of the engine mixture thats at fault which it would be as gas is a different proposition to petrol.
Could it be that the auto box has taken this displayed symbol and acted accordingly, (it ran for 3000miles on LPG unaffected) the book goes on to suggest 3 cold starts on Petrol will send the lighht off. Why run on Gas? its simply the cost of fuel we are paying now just over 7 dollars a gallon and LPG comes in at 35% of that cost. Look forward to your reply.
Regards

 

pull the neagative battery cable off turn on the headlights wait ten minutes, shut the headlights off then hook up the negative cable the truck will now be in learning mode drive it like you want to and it will learn you new driving style.

 

Well would you believe it no sooner than you guys come up with a solution and the truck fixes itself, went on good ride today 250 miles and its working a treat, perhaps the brain has finally identified that I don't drive like an 85 year old !!!!!!!!! (i did not get around to the'fix' you suggested)
Thanks for the help guys will print this tip off and keep it for next time, just watched the film 'christine' about the plymouth fury with a mind of its own, could this be the re make ?Lets hope not.

 

Is the check engine light still on?

With certain faults, the ECM may change the shift points to some defaults required for a "limp home mode".

Might be worth while to get the codes scanned to see what was setting the check engine light. The fault should still be stored even though the light has gone off. Do not disconnect the battery like one poster said unless you don't care to see what that fault was because that will clear it.

I bought a scanner for my laptop made by autoenginuity. It is awesome software and fairly reasonably priced for all the features it gives. You can find them on ebay. You can buy the Ford upgrade that allows you see the entire set of Ford sensors too.

 

Took the truck back to the guy who fiited the LPG conversion who quite easily cleared off the yellow warning light so everything is A1 again, Lets hope thats the last of that problem, as for LPG its a very good replacement for petrol the system is of Dutch (Holland) origin costs £2000 which is around $3500, may be you will see in interest in the states as fuel price will only go up. You could say its the cheapest today than it will ever be.