4r100 Woes and advice
 

I am posting this for my dad. We both have similar trucks and I am somewhat familiar with his. As I previously posted asking for towing ideas to get my dad's truck back home, my dad's f350 is having transmission issues. Today, I drove up to his camper and we decided to drive it back and I would follow behind him in my truck and if he could just get up over the hills I could tow strap it the retail of the way if needed. He got it home but it was shifting hard going into 2nd and 3rd he said. And the last few miles before his house, it wouldn't shift out of 2nd gear. I drove around town with him and it shifted pretty aggressively into 2nd and 3rd and but I didn't personally notice the 2nd gear not upshifting, but I believe him.

His is a late 99 F350 CCLB 4X4 dually auto 7.3. he has 201K and original engine and transmission. 2 years ago we towed some pile of crap 5th wheel down from his campground by Roosevelt and when we left the house we dropped it at, it wouldn't shift out of 2nd gear then either. It went away the next time he drove it and he decided just to flush it and it hasn't happened again until yesterday. Now, it's basically not going away.

I have an Aeroforce gauge for my truck I haven't hardwired yet so I plugged it into his truck and checked for codes. 3 come up, one is for the KAM, another is for the AIH (which we both are throwing since we have glowshift gauges and run the boost gauge through that port) but the third is a transmission code. P0732. When I looked it up, I have seen a lot of people mentioned that that code is for the 2nd gear and I have seen others say that it is most of the time associated with the mechanical dioide and that is bad news bears for the transmission.

So, I am here seeking clarification on that transmission code, as well as where to go next for the transmission. My dad is not as open to buying stuff out of state and having somebody install it. He wants to take it somewhere local and have it rebuilt but upgraded.

So first, P0732- is it for sure the mechanical dioide? Regardless he has a serious transmission issue as it isn't intermittent anymore. How much damage is he doing if he keeps driving on it for a month or 2 until he gets it into a shop? His drive to work is about 2 miles and he said he could take his bike if he really has to. His knees aren't very good, so I'm not sure how he will pull that off.

Second, anybody know local shops in the greater Phoenix area that do solid work for rebuilding 4r100's?

Is there anybody that build an aftermarket transmission that is compatible with the 7.3 and is a direct bolt in, and is a good upgrade?

What are good choices for upgraded 4r100's?

He currently has a 40' Open Range 5th Wheel that is just parked at their spot near the lake, but when he retires in the next decade or less, he and my mom plan to drive it wherever whenever they want. He literally just bought injectors from Rosewood and an F6 chip and 8 tunes from DP Tuner and I was going to help him change those out in 2 weeks. He is slowly preparing to get the truck ready to haul that big camper across the country and not have to worry about anything. Trailer weights I want to say between 10-12k. He is switching to single shot stage 1.5 or 2's can't remember which one, and has a few tow tunes and an AC tune for being stuck in traffic and a daily driver tune.

I have no idea on his budget. I'm sure it's not ridiculously high seeing as he just dropped over 3 grand for the injectors and chip not even 2 weeks ago. But I'm sure if it's under 5k it's on the table.

Any and all suggestions welcomed.

In all honesty, if thats his plan after retirement, then get a FORD HD trans. If something was to happen within warranty period, itll be towed to the nearest Fors dealer...no brainer brutha

This would be my first choice as well.

I mentioned this to him to consider. I'm only wondering if he has the injectors and those tunes running on it, will it void the warranty? Does Ford do any sort of upgraded transmissions or do they only do factory stock specs? He is wanting to do an upgraded transmission.

First off yo don't have to worry about the "mechanical diode" issue, it was an '01 year model thing.
I think that continuing to drive it is playing with fire. At 200+ K miles it is most likely due for a rebuild. A catastrophic failure will add a lot more to repair costs.

As a side note, I may have to worry about it as my 01 is a 2001.

But I agree. I told him if he needs to borrow my truck until he gets it taken care of he can. I have my Camry I can drive which I usually do anyways.

Being that your in the valley, theres builders on clist that offer 800-1600 w/exchange...buys you time for now...but to answer the fird question..yes, its their HD version trans..tugly and a few others have them..a perfect case in point if going to a shop/builder as was the case with Chet. If something happens and your 2000 miles from him, whats your plans then? Yes, its under warranty ro FIX the trans, but how you going to get there...;)

I talked to my dad some more about the warranty aspect and he said their current plan would have them at the earliest, retiring 5 years from now but it could be as late as 10. So the warranty will most likely be non existent by then. They have an extra car right now so if between now and when they retire there are any issues, they won't be stuck.

Another random thought, is he going to have to have all his tunes redone after the new transmission if it isn't a stock rebuild? The tunes are probably using the parameters of the stock transmission and work in conjunction with the shift points as well as the capabilities at different power levels. I'm not an expert, but I'm curious if it is going to be required. It would suck to have to redo all of it after he just bought them a week ago.

IIRC the trucks with build date of 4/01+ are OK, those built before would have the mechanical diode. Mark Kovalsky is the man who knows for sure.

For daily drivers, generally speaking a properly tuned truck won't need a retune after adding an upgraded transmission.

Stewart

I have the Ford HD4R100 and am mildly/moderately modified I would say. GT38R, S&B Intake, Terminator HPOP, 160/30 Injectors and a few other things. I did not have to have tunes re-flashed when I upgraded. The truck felt like it lost 1000lbs when I got that transmission in the truck after driving around on the old slush box it had. He'll love it and it has a 3 year no mileage no commercial useage exemption. I told them my truck had injectors and a turbo and my Ford dealer said it shouldn't void the warranty as long as I upgraded tranny cooling.

I called one if the Ford dealers in the Phoenix area today and talked to a service writer. The transmission and diesel guy at that one we're gone for the day and he had no idea about this HD4R100 transmission but was able to quote me for R&R on a transmission for the truck. Said $1400 for that.

My dad did say he emailed Jody about the tunes and he responded back saying that he will have to have them redone after having a rebuilt transmission if it isn't stock because of the valve bodies being different.

Is the 4R100 capable of handling the torque from upgraded injectors while dragging a 12k 5th wheel up hills? Is an upgraded one from a local place or something like Monster or BTS better?

He is wanting to take a look at a local place some guy he knows has had his transmission upgraded at. I think he said the name of the place is Ken's in North Phoenix (in case anybody local on here sees this and can chime in).

Another nickle and dime too! Ouch. I suggest ditching the DP garbage and get a Hydra.

Kind if side tracking here, but he went with DP because of my recommendation. I told him that's who I went with on my 97 when I did injectors. But I told him I wanted to look at all options out there and I did come across a forum somewhere that said that DP bumps timing way up for their tunes and others don't mess with it as much, so some people weren't a fan of that. No idea if it's true or not, but that's the closest I've come to seeing anything remotely close to negative about them. I ran them and loved the tunes I had, my buddy runs them on his 7.3 swapped bronco and he loves them. A lot of people on the forum love them. I'll probably end up going with them when I do the injectors on my 01, but I still wanted to shop around a bit.

Anyways, I will be calling Ford back today to see what their diesel/transmission guys say about that 4R100 transmission. From what I'm reading, they might even be cheaper than a lot of places that rebuild transmissions. And they'll offer a 3 year unlimited mile warranty.