So I'm off work today, and want to service the transmission. I've got both filters, and a 18 quarts of SP, but am not familiar with this transmission, and understand there's no drain plug for the converter. Want to get all of the fluid out, best I can. I'm at 153,000 on this truck with no issues. I do not desire to flush, just want a fluid change.

Searching the forums brings up a lengthy list of transmission threads, but nothing yet that gives me the step-by-step.

thanks,
mike

 

The flush is the only way to get the fluid out of the torque converter because you need to heat it up.

As for the rest, it will be messy.

Crack the pan open towards one end and let it drain off by slowly loosening the pan bolts.

 

Yea, I understand the heating it up part, but I don't want to do a pressure flush. The tech at the dealership said I may want to consider a drain rather than a pressure flush, even before I mentioned that was what I intended to do.

The drain pan has a drain plug on it, so I'm good there. More of what I'm looking for is how to be sure the cooler and converter are empty. I've always changed all of my other fluids, and have had transmission flushes. Never changed the transmission fluid. I've heard the external filter is a pain to remove as well.

 

You will play hell getting a true drain of all the fluid without doing a flush. Just how it is. I don't see why you are so scared of a flush. You need to be careful with the external filter. I have cracked the housing using an impact and by hand. Its on tight. Just pop it once with an impact and it should be good.

 

Nothing scary about it. Very simple job, the filter in the pan doesn't need to be replaced. First drain your pan. Then remove it and clean it including your magnet. Depending on how many miles are on the truck I would personally replace the filter in pan anyway. Then go ahead and replace your external filter being careful. After you put everything back together you will only put back about 9qts. Again depending on the miles of your truck, you may wanna repeat these steps a couple more times, leaving the filter in the pan alone. This is the only way to do it other than a flush machine and it works just fine. There have been some on here who have a procedure for flushing at home. I personally have no experience with this. I do this procedure once a year. Good luck

 

Thanks Sammy.

 

My Supeduty has a manual, but I serviced automatics on our sedans. Per my observation the most critical part is wiping off the bottom of the pan, since this is where lot of dirt and heavy fluid residue collect. Don't know if that applies to Ford, but other transmissions have magnetic speed sensor inside the valve body. The magnet collects the steel shaving over the time and might require cleaning.

 

I was looking for same (step by step) and came across this:
BadgerTrek: Changing Torqshift Transmission Fluid
After reading it, I thought "You know - I could do that. Then again I could give some patronage to the trany shop down the street. He's a nice guy and needs the business"
Curious to hear the opinion of a real diesel tech on this procedure.

 

I'm not a diesel tech, but that procedure looks like it should work fine.

There is only one way to drain everything out of the trans, torque converter and lines without a hot flush machine or a method like this. Take the trans out of the truck and tear it down. There is no way to just drain the converter.

 

I want to change my transmission filters, but don't want to try flushing out ALL the fluid. This truck has 220k miles, I've had it for 10K. I don't know what fluid has been put in it before. From what I've read, I should use Motorcraft MERCON LV.
My questions are
(1) Not knowing what fluid has been in it, would it cause a problem to put Mercon LV in it without draining the torque converter and lines?
(2) If I just drain the pan (not converter and lines), when I put new fluid in to top it off, how many quarts am I needing?

Thank you all for your help. Hope I can get a reply soon, I plan to do this tomorrow--unless I'm told I should not take a chance of possibly mixing fluids.

 

I can't tell you that you can mix fluids if you can't tell me what's in there. If it were mine I'd put the MERCON LV in it.

Just dropping the pan you'll need 5-7 quarts.

 

Mark, Thank you for the above info...

OK, so my truck has the FT-144 internal filter in it (And FT-145 external filter). It looks completely clean, so I'm not going to change it.
What is the story with the FT-180 filter that looks larger and shows up as an option for my truck? Would it work in my truck with the regular pan? It looks like it would hang lower than the FT-144, so I'm concerned about the pan fitting over it.

ALSO...a friend said that he's drained the transmission pan on a couple of his trucks that hadn't been done in a long time, and the detergents in the new transmission fluid he added broke loose the "gunk" that was left in the rest of the system, and caused problems. Said he lost 2nd gear on both these trucks. So he's saying he won't drain the pan again on a truck that hasn't had fluid changed in a long time.

My truck has 222,000 miles, I got it 10,000 miles ago. I don't know when it was last done. But like I said the internal filter looked clean. The pan didn't look too dirty, but I'm not experienced to know if the fluid looks acceptable or not. I haven't read anywhere on here yet that just dropping the pan on a way overdue truck has caused a problem. Thoughts?

 

You're right, your pan will not fit over it. You would have to change to a 2008 Job#2 pan.

The advantage of this filter is that it is a better filter than both of your current filters put together. You can eliminate the cartridge in your external filter if you switch to this one.

That's his prerogative. He doesn't have to change his fluid if he doesn't want to. He can just rebuild or replace the transmission instead.

What really happened to his trans is that second gear was on the verge of failing. He probably noticed problems and decided to try new fluid to fix it. It was too late and the trans failed. The trans would have also failed if he left the old fluid in it. To each their own.

If the trans is healthy this can only help it. If the trans is about to fail this won't make it fail, and it won't fix it, either.

 

Thank you again!! Good thought--he probably noticed an issue, so tried changing fluid--a little too late.
The thought of a better filter is tempting, but as it is I'm buying an impact wrench tomorrow so I can get the external filter off, so I guess I'll stick with it.
This should have been a quick little job, but with being given the wrong part, and the stuck external housing...goodness! But it will be better next time! Cheers!

 

So why not just bring it to a dealer and have it done right? I got my tranny, t case and diffs done for like $400. How much did you just spend on a filter and 18 qts of fluid. Its not a bad deal and you will know everything is new and fresh