Transmission Slipping...Suggestions?

[molson63]

Chances are you didn't smoke yours, but probably did some damage. Try to budget for a rebuild, just in case.

That was my mechanic's advice as well; to start looking for a good deal on a rebuilt. He has found that on older cars like this you can sometimes luck into one on a shelf somewhere that the shop is willing to dicker on. I live close to Albany, NY and there are quite a few transmission shops there that keep rebuilt units on hand. So it looks like I'll just drive the car around locally and start looking around for reasonable price on a rebuilt for the long haul. The car is never driven more than 100 miles or so from home, and 90% of the the trips I take with it are within 40 miles of my house. Thanks for all the advice so far, and if anyone has any other thoughts I'd be glad to hear them.

[MattDoscher]

Sounds like you found what the problem was (broken bushing) and once your brass onearrives you can install it for a permanent repair. I would have the tranny flushed personally to get rid of any possible contaminants and continue driving it. I wouldn't forsee you having any more problems. Tranny's can take some slipping but not repeated/ignored slipping. It sounds like you had some slipping and discovered what was causing your slipping and fixed it. I think you should be fine.

[Mercracer]

I stopped in to see my mechanic and he agreed to change the fluid and filter if I asked him to, but he wasn't sure he would do that if it were his car. His reasoning is that the clutches probably lost a fair amount of material which is now suspended in the fluid. That material is bad for some parts of the transmission but good for producing friction for the bands. It may be best, he said, to leave well enough alone and just keep a close eye on the transmission for signs of trouble....

I can't agree with this. If your filter is doing its job, those particles will not make it back out of the pan and the only thing they will do is potentially plug your filter. Anytime your transmission has excessive slipping you create alot of heat quickly. This will cook your hydraulic fluid which is the life blood of your transmission. My advice is to drop the pan to drain the fluid, change your filter and then also drain the converter. A fresh fluid and filter change will do your transmission good and help to get maximum life out of it.

[88Vic]

Does Ford recommend fully flushing out all the old fluid while having the filter changed? If so I may try that to see if it helps my transmission from slipping, gonna have a local transmission shop look mine over to see maybe why it's slipping and not downshifting properly.

[Mercracer]

Does Ford recommend fully flushing out all the old fluid while having the filter changed? If so I may try that to see if it helps my transmission from slipping, gonna have a local transmission shop look mine over to see maybe why it's slipping and not downshifting properly.

All you need to do is drop the pan, change the filter and fill it back up. If it still slips, your tranny is toast and nothing will save it. Used AODs are cheap.

[cld783]

something about those flush machines scare me.. i'd leave it alone and hope you got lucky.

[88Vic]

All you need to do is drop the pan, change the filter and fill it back up. If it still slips, your tranny is toast and nothing will save it. Used AODs are cheap.

Ok but dropping the pan doesn't get all the fluid out like in the torque converter so how do you get that out manually? My transmission was flushed right before I got it but the pan was never off so the filter wasn't changed, not the way I would have done it but what's done is done, and it currently slips in OD and if I gas it too hard in 3rd. It shifts rough from 1-2 as well, I figure I can change the fluid and filter and hope for the best.

[Mercracer]

Ok but dropping the pan doesn't get all the fluid out like in the torque converter so how do you get that out manually? My transmission was flushed right before I got it but the pan was never off so the filter wasn't changed, not the way I would have done it but what's done is done, and it currently slips in OD and if I gas it too hard in 3rd. It shifts rough from 1-2 as well, I figure I can change the fluid and filter and hope for the best.

Don't shift to OD.... EVER AGAIN until you get another transmission or rebuild this one. It will never get better. Leave the shifter in D and do not put it in OD. Don't worry about the fluid in the converter. If it still slips after simply dropping the pan and putting in a fresh filter, draining the converter is not going to help. You have a whole lot of wishful thinking going on right now. Unfortunately, your tranny is likely absolute toast already.

[ka7jjg43]

I went to my local Ford dealer, they asked for a part number for this brass bushing kit, anybody know it off hand?? had enough of checking that linkage with my hand hehehe like to upgrade dudes

[sly]

http://www.lincolnsonline.com/tech/00052.html

The part number for the brass Transmission Throttle Valve bushing is F3SZ-7H303-B.

[ka7jjg43]

Thks buckets slymer

[88Vic]

Don't shift to OD.... EVER AGAIN until you get another transmission or rebuild this one. It will never get better. Leave the shifter in D and do not put it in OD. Don't worry about the fluid in the converter. If it still slips after simply dropping the pan and putting in a fresh filter, draining the converter is not going to help. You have a whole lot of wishful thinking going on right now. Unfortunately, your tranny is likely absolute toast already.

It is toast, coming home from work it started to slip and now won't shift past 2nd, so the car now sits until I can sell it or afford to have it rebuilt.