My 95 F250 4x4 seems to be suffering from slow 1st to 2nd shifts. Under low throttle it is ok. As the throttle increases, so does the shift lag time and sponginess of the shift. Anyone had any luck cleaning out the valve body or adding the transcommander and having it solve this problem?

 

I hope your cause is not the same as mine was, but this was one of the first symptoms I experienced before my trans. had a major failure. I would pull the pan and check for metal if it were me.
Are you running a good trans. cooler and does the fluid smell burned?
Are you having any other symptoms?

 

The fluid does smell a little burned, probably because I drove it like that. There is no slipping once it goes into gear. If I shift it manually though the gears it does fine. This only happens in drive. I plan on dropping the pan this weekend and checking out the filter condition and possibly dropping the valve body.

 

Try pulling the #9 fuse under the hood. It's a Maxi 20 amp. That will reset the PCM. If you're going to pull the pan and valve body you should consider putting in a sonax valve and tricumulator springs. Search this forum for this great trans mod.

Be sure to drain the torque converter and blow out the cooler. There is an inspection plug on the bottom of the bell housing for draining ther TC. Rotate the engine till you see the plug.

 

I decided to go ahead and order the sonnex kit. So that will go in when I drain everything. Hopefully with fresh fluid and filter and the shift kit the problem will be resolved. I hate to replace it because other than this shift problem the tranny works great.

 

Just a little update for you. I pulled the pan and the valve body. It was very dirty. In part because some wonderfully intelligent person decided to remove the magnet from the pan. While I had everything apart I installed the sonnex valve. I believe between having new fluid/filter and the valve this problem is resolved and the tranny should live a nice happy life.

I wish this would have been done early in the trucks life. Due to the large amount of stuff in the pan, I will change the filter and fluid again in a couple of thousand miles. Thanks for all the help!

 

Could you identify the stuff in the pan? If it came from your bands or something like that you may still have a condition that will re-occur, but hopefully not. See if you can figure out where it came from and if a minor service now will save a major service later.
Although I have not done this to my trans yet, I have done it to my 429 oilpan. I welded in an additional bung for an oil drain plug that was in a better location for me. I then took some magnets from some old 6x9 speakers and stuck them next to the new bung on the outside of the pan. Now when I drain the oil I remove the magnets first and then the drain plug, and in my own theory anyway, the captured particles are in the stream of the flowing oil and get washed out by the oil.
When I do this to my transmission, I will need to pick a location that will not trap particles near the pickup of the pump, That could be asking for trouble.

 

Seems to be just the normal greyish very fine metal shavings that would have normally been trapped on the magnet. I'm sure there is something wrong internally, but this seems to have fixed it for now. If I can get another year out of it I will tear it down and do a proper rebuild. I did get the transmission manual and I will be going through it to see if there is anything else I can do with the tranny still in the truck. I have all of the tools, just need time.

 

For what it is worth here. Mine is a 1997 F350 7.3l, and I just got back from a 230 mile tow after the tranny gave out on a short pull up a hill with the trailer behind and it was giving me problmes as your before..

It was acting up somewhat as yours, had some hard shifts from 1st to 2nd.
Tried changing out the ATFluids and added a larger cooler, (there was s0me metal in the magent) and it seemed to clear it up .... that is until that last hill on Monday. Heard a bang from the tranny and it locked into 1st and did not shift nor would it go into reverse (must have lost a/some bands). It was able to creap 11 miles off the plateau to the only camping site that I could pull straight into so the wife and kids could be safe and have fun with the others while I set about arranging for the tows to get it back to the house, and to get the camper back..so for what it is worth - I did get a chat with a guy coming back today with the camper that he heard that the PS Autos were going out, esp in the earlier autos as mine, due to some weaknesses that are supposed to be repairable/upgradeable - doesn't help me know
so now I'm looking to replace or rebuild the tranny - and will take gladly any info on any rebuilders or suppliers anyone knows of in the Denver, CO area