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Funny Shifting After Towing

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Old Sep 26, 2007 | 06:48 PM
  #1  
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Funny Shifting After Towing

I just noticed this after towing my wake board boat this weekend. I towed the boat about 5 miles at 70mph. I ALWAY have the OD off while towing.

Anyway, I've noticed the converter locks out very frequently and rarely stays unlocked (maybe its the other way around). The RPM's jump up just a little bit before shifting into second. Also, when i'm finished towing, the truck seems to hold it's gears much longer and rev harder.

I know that the converter slipping is generating a lot of heat and I'm sure it's getting a little warm, but I have 2 coolers behind the front bumper.

Am I cooking my tranny?
 
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Old Sep 26, 2007 | 07:03 PM
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Just a few suggestions...
How much does your boat weigh? If its a pretty big boat it might be worth it to get a tranny temp gauge. I know ive towed about 7000lbs before in my truck without any effects to the tranny.
The bigger of the 2 coolers in front of the grill is the tranny cooler and the smaller one is for P. Steering, i believe.
Do you know anybody with a truck like yours? If you do drive/ride in it and see what its tranny feels like.
 
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Old Sep 26, 2007 | 07:43 PM
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The boat is an 07 Air Nautique and thier website says the boat without a trailer weights 3800lbs. I'd say the trailer weights around a 1000lbs. Maybe just a hair under 5k pounds unloaded and without fuel.

I towed this same load with my 99 Z71 without any issues at all. I'm thinking I need a diesel but 5000lbs shouldnt be too much for a Ford with a 5.4l and some mods.
 
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Old Sep 26, 2007 | 08:07 PM
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6 year old truck, how many miles? ever change the transmission fluid and filter? MERCON V is a synthetick fluid and acts funny when it looses some of the magic addatives. Also minor amounts of dirt floating around get into the valve body and make things shift funny. The boat and trailer are small, thats not the problem. Maybe just a concidence, maybe not.
 
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Old Sep 26, 2007 | 09:22 PM
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I bought the truck used at 114k miles and it came from a dealership in Dallas, TX. Right now it currently has 127k miles on it. The fluid looks bright pink and doesnt smell burnt or funny. I checked it the other day and it appears to be full and in decent shape.

I have no idea of the work history on the truck. Im afraid of changing the fluid because I've heard horror stories of people who have changed their fluid, without knowing the maintanence history, and their tranny puked.

Might I add that there are no other signs of tranny failure. Driving around town the truck shifts through all gears very smooth and down shifts very smooth as well.
 

Last edited by OkLaHoMaF150; Sep 26, 2007 at 09:26 PM.
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Old Sep 27, 2007 | 06:03 PM
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Originally Posted by OkLaHoMaF150
I
I have no idea of the work history on the truck. Im afraid of changing the fluid because I've heard horror stories of people who have changed their fluid, without knowing the maintanence history, and their tranny puked.
Ive heard of people ruining trannys by getting a power flush done on an old tranny but never heard of one getting ruined by doing a filter and fluid change.
 
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Old Sep 27, 2007 | 08:46 PM
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The proper way to change the fluid is to do a complete fluid exchange. I'm still unsure about changing the fluid.
 
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Old Sep 28, 2007 | 01:47 AM
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So after some time is the truck doing it still? What are your current symptoms ?...

i did drop a tranny but it was only cause a bearing failed... the tranny never let me down in fact i still pulled my load the rest of the 150 miles home in OD and pulled into my shop...and found that i only had a bearing failure and it pumped its shavings threw the rest of my tranny.. and still worked none the less.. these trannys are tough enough ... and if you have a 4r100 then you are set..those are dang near bulit proof.
 
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Old Sep 28, 2007 | 03:57 AM
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Originally Posted by OkLaHoMaF150
The boat is an 07 Air Nautique and thier website says the boat without a trailer weights 3800lbs. I'd say the trailer weights around a 1000lbs. Maybe just a hair under 5k pounds unloaded and without fuel.

I towed this same load with my 99 Z71 without any issues at all. I'm thinking I need a diesel but 5000lbs shouldnt be too much for a Ford with a 5.4l and some mods.
It's not. A 5.4 (assuming 3v) will pull 10000# quite nicely, and will manage 14000, altho not like gangbusters. I pulled a 14k trailer with an '05 F250 5.4L/3.73 rear along the Lincoln Hiway in southern pa. For those of you who haven't driven this hiway, it gets STEEP. The '05 got right down to about 35 MPH at 3500 rpm for about the last mile up one grade. Not stellar performance, but adequate. Oh, did I mention it was a 10% grade for 3.5 miles? To put that in perspective, interstate hiways are limited to 4% grades. Call it the little engine that could.
 
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Old Sep 28, 2007 | 04:52 AM
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Yeah you definetly dont need a deisel to pull that much weight. Sometime next week im going to pull about 7500-8000lbs with my truck and it has the old 2v 5.4.
 
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Old Sep 28, 2007 | 09:21 AM
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Driving around town the truck shifts and drives fine. It's when I have that load and OD off and the converter slipping which is when the RPM's jump up just a little bit. However, when towing it seems to unlock a lot. Like I said before, this generates a lot of heat but 5000lbs should be nothing for 5.4 2v with some mods.
 
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