here is how it went down:

time line of events.

Last Friday i decide work has had to much of my time and the weather was supposed to suck later so I bailed and a buddy and I went for a dirt ride, good one too.

on the way home I picked up a small vibration a 65+ mph, in my Excursion and figured maybe it was the road or possibly even a wheel weight.

pulled over to check it out and found nothing that could cause it, still thinking wheel weight.
Pulled back on and as long as I was under 60 it was mild, then it started getting a little worse. Then bad.

Decide I need to pull over but the section of road I was on was not good for that.
Rest stop is 1/2-3/4 miles away and I figure that is my goal.

By the time I got to the off ramp it was bad, really bad and I was going as slow as I could, but fast enough to keep from getting ran over.

it is really bad now and I start thinking motor or tranny as it is at any speed.
pull in and stop, shift to N and rev....motor sounds good.

shift to reverse and rev......just rpm and no movement,then to drive and the same thing. Get out to about 8 quarts of atf running down the lot.

on site diagnosis revealed driveshaft bolts had mysteriously come lose causing the shaft to get out of balance and shake.

this is what I see



then I move to the trannyand see the 5 rear most pan bolts have vibrated out and are sitting on I-25 somewhere, this of course allowed my fluid to drain.

wrecker gets it home, I get new bolts ordered, they came in today and I start putting some things together to evaluate.

drop the pan and drain the remaining oil, only to find one of the little bolts from my valvebodies (?) stuck to the magnet.
grab the torque wrench and the bolt to tighten all the others and install the missing one.
Cant find the bolt hole, but where did it come from??

oh there it goes right there.....

whats that, I see something strange looking.
anybody else see it??






in case you dont see it, it is a huge crack.
no scratch that, my whole transmission housing is cracked in half.

sweet <!--emo&:2thumbs:--><!--endemo-->

so I am guessing that should run in the price of oh say $2500+
not just a rebuild of internals I need the whole kit n kaboodle.


what am I looking at:

for cost?
does my theory sound reasonable as to what happened?
in the rebuild stage what should I do to make this tranny better?
I tow regularlly about 8000 pounds.
anybody know a good tranny shop in Denver/Parker Co?
I figure a recomendation is better than the yellow book.

Also I have a BTS valve body matched to my DP tuner what needs to be done with that VB?

Guess I should call Brian and Jody.

thanks for your help guys looks like my dirt racing season budget just got eaten up, 1st race is paid for and in 2 weeks so I would like to make that but???


ya know what they say:

"some guys have all the luck"

 

Since you have a BTS valve body, I'd be calling Brian at BTS and do some ordering. So much for a core.

 

Not sure if this is still available, or even if it would work to "swap the case", but:

Ford 4R100 transmission

What part of CO are you in? I'm in Westminster for about 2 weeks more, and then I move to Maryland.

 

I am in Parker. and I will call brian and see what my options are, also might have to see if the cost of a used one like linked to would be worth it for a core cange?

 

Ouch! Sorry to here bout the tranny.

 

Never seen a cracked houing like that before or bolts backing out. Seems you know what your doing now on the fix.

 

If your not going to go wild on the injectors side of things, and need to get it fixed somewhat on a faster timeline, you may actually talk your ford dealer into putting a reman in. Then after you get it, put your VB in. I think ford remans are around 2500 installed. I would also get a P/I torque converter, and have ford put that in, instead of the one they want to. If you ask them, they should do that, they will just not warrenty the converter if it fails. Then you have a great converter, new tranny, and you can put your VB in, have a pretty decent setup for about 3500. Thats the route I went when mine failed, but for me, it was mostly a time issue. Need the truck for work.

 

P/I torque converter?

sorry for the ignorance..


I called Brian at BTS and good golly I wish I had some more money, he is about half again as much but it would be forever fixed and no worries towing with that.

 

P/I is Precision Industries. The model is the Stallion, for the power stroke. It is the same converter that comes with the BTS trans. No worries on the "ignorance". It never hurts to ask a question, to try to help you understand, instead of assuming you know!

 

My trans went February 2006 at 127,000 miles, I went with a Ford reman not thinking to look into something better. Keep in mind that with what I've done to it, it's holding up well, but deep inside, I wish I had gone with the BTS.

Do yourself and your truck a favor and get a BTS!!!!!