Hey everybody. I have the diesel bug like crazy. I have that grin on my face everyday, and can not shake it. Anyway my question is how should my tranny act while shifting. I purchased my dually a month ago and have been reading every forum on our sweet trucks for the last month. But I quess some of my questions have not been answered.

First off I have a 2001 F350 dually with the 7.3 with an automatic. When she shifts gears she gives a little bit of a jerk not mutch at all but just enough to let you know she is there, oh and she doesnt do it in all gears mainly between 1 and 2 than 3 and 4. Anouther thing is I have 168,000 miles on her and I dont know what has been replaced or not but have been learning alot on the forums. Now I am a driver operator engineer medic for the fire department and have been driving diesels for a long time, but this is my first diesel rig and dont know how she is supposed to feel. So I do not know if the tranny has been services or not, but she goes through all gears ok, absolutely know slipping, anouther thing is I have called all the main tranny shops and they all say the same thing. If you do not know if your tranny has been rebuilt or not and she does have that many miles on her do not flush her out, the tranny with give away, I have also read this on the posts. So I did change the tranny fluid with Royal Purple and put anouther 400 miles on her and she still shifts through all gears ok, just a little jerk in those gears.
Now I have been turning wrenches since in diapers so I am not timmid to do any thing. I have rebuilt tranny's and am fine doing this one, but again if it aint broke don't mess with it. Pluss I am ok with saving my money for as long as possable. So what do you all think.

Thanks.

 

...Welcome to Ford Truck Enthusiasts!

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Welcome to FTE.
I personally have a six speed stick, so not much experience with how they are supposed to act. But from your description it sounds like things are ok so far. You don't want your shifts to be mushy. That means things are slipping.
If your transmission does take a dump, then there are several people here on FTE that swear by Brian's Truck Stop transmissions. They are pricey, but Brian guarentees them for the life of the truck and dares you to break it.

 

So help me out guyes. When she shifts from 1st to 2nd you can feel it, sometimes from 2nd to 3rd you can I would say half the time, I am not sure how often I feel from 3rd to 4th though, but I always know because I look at the tach and the rpms go down, and then I feel it going into 5th gear. I wonder if the tranny is rebuilt?

 

[QUOTE=rpaquette]So help me out guyes. When she shifts from 1st to 2nd you can feel it, sometimes from 2nd to 3rd you can I would say half the time, I am not sure how often I feel from 3rd to 4th though, but I always know because I look at the tach and the rpms go down, and then I feel it going into 5th gear. I wonder if the tranny is rebuilt?[/QUOTE

To me your trans seems fine. I am no expert but do have firm shifts also (99 CC PSD) and like it that way. My shifts from 1-2-3 were ok but to od were mushy so I installed a Sonnax/Tricumulator shift kit and that helped alot. These can be researched here.There are other upgrades too like valve body swaps.You prob meant torque converter lock-up as your fifth "shift", right? Like stated before fast firm shifts equal less heat generated, but if they are perceived to be banging shifts thats not good either. They seem to shift similar to any other healthy auto trans. Hope this helps and welcome to FTE

Forgot to ask, did you find much black gunk on the magnet in your pan when you did the fluid? Small amt is ok.

 

You know what when I changed the tranny oil it was not that bad. She was'nt dark cherry red but still red. I did not smell the oil either, I was not having a good day and forgot to do it. The magnet was not bad either. I am deffinetly going to go to the dealer and check to see what kind of history she has. I know that she only had one owner.

You know on a different note. I was having the hardest problem with the rear end. I looked on all the forums for a week and thought that I had all the knowledge to get the job done. Boy was I wrong, I find out that I have the s135L with 4:10 gears ok not a problem so I also read on here that ford made the change from 80w90 to 75-140 synthetic. So I purchased the synthetic oil. I get home and pop off the rear end cap and out comes about four quarts of oil. So I am really !#@$@% confused. Ok the dana 80 takes 4 quarts of 75-140 synthetic. The s135 takes 11.5L of 80-90. Ok obviously somebody changed the gearl oil right, or else I would of had a whole lot more gear oil come out. Now how mutch fluid do I replace her with, nobody has seemed to mention that. So after pondering this and using my wisdom and common sence I said ok if this is all that came out, it must be 75-140 synthetic oil and I should be ok putting the same amount back in. I had allready driven her about a thousand miles so everything should be ok. Even though I purchased 12 quarts of 80-90 because I was so confused on what to put back in her. So I put the synthetic oil and limited slip additive in her and have driven about four hundred miles and no problems. I have to say I am having so mutch fun with the beast.

 

Hey kid, reading your posts ALMOST makes me want to be young again. Have fun!