This is my first post. So I'd like to start off by saying, great forum, I've learned quite a bit from browsing these pages..

the truck is a 1992 f350, 7.3l, with e40d and its 4wd.
there is no forward or reverse movement, when i put it in gear, except it will work a little bit when you first start it up, but it stops working after its been running for about a minute. last time I tried it went about 10ft under its own power, than quit.

some of the symptoms it had before it broke down, was a blinking O.D. light
VERY hard shifting, you really had to ease the rpms before you hit that next gear or you got a nice loud bang. couldnt use cruise control most of the time, it worked but if the truck downshifted, I would have to take it out of cruise, and put it back into 4th manually.

we had the transmission rebuilt about a year before it broke down again, including new torque converter and trans cooler. the shop is now out of business, if that tells you anything about the quility of work

It seems pretty obvious now that the root of the problem started with the elctrical and I guess it would be too much to ask if i can just replace a sensor and it would work again.

So what part of a transmission, or combination of parts would fail , and cuase me to lose power, except for that first few seconds. And how difficult would said problem areas be to fix. would something like this require a full rebuild?

oh and where can i get a good service manual? Thanks in advance

 

Search out FIPL (fuel injection pump lever sensor) resetting, does the speedo work flawlessly, does the tach work flawlessly. There should be a flashing OD light..... count the flashes and or check for codes. Tach, speedo and FIPL must all work..... did you put larger/smaller tires on the truck.

 

Even with all electrics disconnected from the trans you should get forward and reverse.
Does the fluid look or smell burnt? Is the fluid up to proper level?

 

If you are not even getting movement at all, then its gone beyond simple electrical issues.

My guess is you have seals that are not working properly or valves that don't engage all the way. When the transmission is cold, the fluid is thicker and that helps fluid pass through imprefect seals/valves like that without complete loss of pressure. Once it gets up to temp, the fluid viscosity drops off, and leakage increases enough to prevent enough pressure to apply the clutch packs.

The hard shifting is also a clue that leads me to think it could be a stuck valve. I had a similar problem with mine a while ago. One valve was badly scratched from contamination and would hesitate for a split second when the transmission was cold. When it finally did pop in place, it was late and hard producing a harsh shift. Eventually, that valve stopped working and would cause wrong gear starts, 1-3 shifting, and neutral out at idle. I have a higher volume pump, so if I revved mine up, it would still grab a gear and start off again.

I tried to restore the damaged valves several times, but eventually replaced the whole valve body.

I'm not sure how much work you are comfortable doing on this transmission, but something you can try doing is removing the valve body and inspecting/cleaning all of the valves to insure that they slide freely in the bores. They should not snag AT ALL and if the spring is removed from any of them, gravity should be enough to let them slide. Also look for any signs of scratches or nicks on the valve or the bores.

The valve body can drop without having to remove the transmission and a ford dealer can print you off the exploded view of the components so you know how to put it back together or see if something was not correct from the rebuild shop.

 

no all the guages work, right size tires. I'll need to hook the power back up to get any codes, trucks been sitting for a while. I didnt even know the FIPL existed until I came to this forum. still not sure where its located, I know i have a chiltons around here somewhere.

last time i checked it, it was a bright red with no burnt smell, but that was a while back, I'll double check it when i have some daylight.

Ok thats makes sense. This is my project for the summer, so learning how to do the repairs myself is in itself the goal. and this is precisely the kind of information I am looking for, to get me started. I'll need to do some more research on the valvebody, I know what it does but not how it does it.


alright, thanks for the posts gentlemen, theirs lots of good info here, and its given me a few good places to start. I still need to move the truck to a suitable area to work underneath. Break up turned my back yard into a swamp, and the truck sank a good inch into the mud.

 

the hard shifting was due to the processor operating in failure mode
the filter is clogged with debris
thats why it will move when first started then stop
some of the debris falls away from the filter when it is off and after running a bit it sucks the debris back into the filter and cloggs it again
teardown time something has failed internally