Recently I was having some hard shifting issues with my truck(94 F250, 5.8, 4X4, E4OD). Under light and light/moderate throttle the truck would rev to about 2700-3000 rpm and shift very hard from 1-2 and from 2-3 gears. Typically under these conditions the E4OD would shift almost unnoticably at about 1800-2000 rpm.

I ran the codes using the poor man's scan tool(4ft piece of romex). I got the codes 452, which is vehicle speed sensor. While I was working I did a complete transmission service (pull the pan, replace the filter, drain the torque converter, and drain the cooler). By the way the powerstrokehelp webpage has an excellent video on doing this service if anyone is interested.

About a week after I did the transmission service I finally was able to reset the codes and replace the speed sensor. A bit of information that could have saved me a trip to the parts store is, the VSS and the ABS sensor are the same thing on these trucks. It is located on the top of the differential and is officially called the Wheel Speed Sensor, but you have to ask for the ABS sensor or they will give the the VSS from the old E4OD transmission. This is very frustrating when you are laying on gravel, under a truck, trying to figure this out.

Everything is shifting smoothly again, I hope this is helpful to anyone else with the same problem.

 

Something to try before buying a new sensor: They have a magnet in them. A lot of times metal shavings stick to the sensor and cause them to not work properly. Sometimes just cleaning off the sensor real good, then re-installing; then resetting the codes will fix this. It has worked for me 2 different times with 2 different vehicles. On one vehicle, I did not reset any codes, and the transmission light stay on. Woke up the next morning started car and drove, and the code was gone and never came back.