I was driving today to figure out a way to replicate the shimmy once it initially happens from stop, but can't, but anyway, i put the truck in 1st gear.... nothing strange, let the truck get up to about 3000rpms, I shift to 2nd, tranny shifts normal, i accelerate slowly, then i just move the shifter to D or 4th gear, the truck takes right off! I mean pull, no bad sounds or clunks, just pull!, maybe its the engine management. Im thinking that 1st and 2nd gear are work gears and engine works different, once i put er in drive, its like she let loose. TRY IT!

 

mxz600
I know exactly what you mean. I like to use low(1st) gear sometimes like when hauling a boat out of the water for instance but the tranny in the 04 f150 is set up very weird. I need to leave it in drive to get the best pulling power. Drive should be the same gear as 1st to start out but it's not.

 

He's talking Canadian dollars...he's from Canada. There's no way you can equip an F-150 to get it to 50 grand in the US.

 

By the way, you're correct about the tranny/engine surging like that. I wasn't even planning on testing it, but I was coming up my driveway a few minutes ago (on a hill), for no good reason I put it in 1st gear. I moved the lever to 2nd...then D...and BOOM...and instant surge. Very odd but funny

 

mxz600
my 2003 does that same thing. I noticed it last month when pulling a U-haul and trying diffrent gears. Its much diffrent from my 2000 Lincoln tranny operation.

 

I don't think this problem is an issue with the transmission. I was playing on the drive home yesterday and this is what I found..I was driving on a mosty flat stretch of road at about 40mph, I decided to drop it into second without taking my foot off of the gas. (I do these weird things sometimes) Dropped it into second, trying my best not to change the throttle position. The rpms jumped up as would be expected and then the truck progressively slowed and rpms dropped. Throttle position never changing from where it was when I was doing 40 in D. I pressed a little more on the gas and nothing, pressed a little more and the rpms started to go up just a little, gave it a little more gas and my speed started to pick up (now somewhere between 1/2-3/4 on peddle travle), shifted to D and got that surge forward.

This is because of the freakin electronic throttle(in my opinion). The voltage input from the peddle to the computer must change when the truck is manually shifted into 2nd gear. So 1/2 peddle in D = 1/8 peddle in 2nd. This is why you get that surge shifting back to D from 2nd. The only thing I can think of is that Ford did this to keep us from over revving the engine and doing damage.

Does that sound good? Any thoughts?

 

04FX4Scab,

I'll buy that one. I did the same thing last Friday while getting on to the Highway. 1st to 2nd then D, then Boom a very large surge. (my wife actually yelled at me ) I tried looking at it from another angle. It's better than having the thing bog down !

 

I wonder if they are trying to help us out with low traction situations. Have a lower throttle response when we are trying to take it easy on snow or ice.