We have 2005 Ford F150 it has 106,000 miles on it. In april 2009 we had to replace the engine. A month later when going between 45-55 mph the transmission feels like its jerking. We had our mechanic take a look at it and he said he thinks the Torque Converter is going out. It is slowly gettting worse. When getting onto the highway it does not jerk it shifts gears smoothly. When going on a road that requires the speed limit of 45 50 or 55 and the gas is being held steadily if you let off of the gas for a brief second and slowly push on it the whole truck jerks or almost like it is trying to get into gear but it is slipping.

Has any one expierenced this and if so what did you do to fix the problem with out completely replacing the engine? Is it hard to replace the torque converter?

Also I have been told that if we replace the torque converter we might have to flush the transmission because there will be metal pieces floating in the transmission...what is the easist way to flush the transmission completely?

Where can you buy a torque converter?

Thank you for all of your help!!

 

I had my TQ replaced 2 summers ago. Had a local tranny shop here in my area to do the work. At the time, I had a aftermarket warranty, which Ford refused to honor, so thats why I had a tranny shop to do mine.

They replaced the TQ and flushed the tranny out. Been fine ever since. Don't know how hard it would be to do yourself, but I would expect it to be very labor intensive. Unless, you know what your doing and have the equipment to handle this job, I would leave the work for a mechanic.

 

What did it cost you to have this done?

 

I had a needle bearing flatten out in the TQ and had mine replaced last summer. Out of warranty and had a highly recommended local tranny shop do it. Cost me approx. $750, wasnt sure if I got took or not but the high recommendation was worth more if it did. Truck has run great since. I did mean to ask if he did a full flush, but was told any tranny guy worth anything would have. I was thinking about regular maintenance at the time. I took this truck to several places including two dealerships, and none of them had any clue but wanted to tear it apart for about $600 to $1000 and let me know. This local guy got in drivers seat, told me to be quiet, started to power brake it several times, closed his eyes (seriously, at this point I was thinking "What have I done"), then said "Oh yeah, thats exactly what it is, needle bearings". I admire the old way of doing things, like when my grandfather would put a screwdriver tip to the heads and other to his ear and diagnose a problem, and I thought that was weird. Good luck - I was scared I was going to pay for a $1,800 heavy duty built tranny!