Truck broke down today!!
I was coming home on the 101 South and I started noticing a weird noise coming from the back of the truck, so I rolled down the windows and slowed down and didn't hear anything, Then I gave it some gas, and the rpms shot up and it got suck in gear, and it felt like the tranny or the rear end just shot out below the truck, I pulled over immediately, and tried to put the truck in reverse when it jumped into gear, like it was bucking through the gears, and a really bad noise was coming from underneath the truck after that....

Any advice to what the problem might be?
I don't want to have to take my truck to Ford, I can't afford their ridiculous prices!

I had it towed to my mechanic and I'm hoping its something to do with the rear end and not the tranny.
I have the basic mods, 4lber, sct x-cal II, jlp intake, bassani exhaust,ngk spark plugs...

 

sounds like you messed up your trans, did you do any upgrades to your tranny after you threw the extra ponies at it????????

 

So hard to say without hearing it, if it ends up needing a Trans I believe Rich (Hostile) is ready to sell his stock trans. He now has a built trans and it's going in next week I believe. What you described could def be the rear too, maybe you'll get lucky and it's only the Ring + Pinion and you'll be up and running in no time

 

Where is the truck now? I live next door in Agoura Hills, maybe I can have a look see to get you going in the right direction.

 

Well, just got word from the mechanic they found metal shavings and it's gone! I need a new transmission, this sucks... trans are way expensive, don't really want to take it to Ford. Ford is saying about $4000 dollars right now...

Shouldn't the lightning trans be able to handle a 4lber without any upgrades to it?
I don't want this to happen again, so maybe I should get a built transmission this time around?

Fireguy- any recommendations on a good transmission shop?
Oh my truck is at Shelleys in Thousand Oaks...

 

How many miles on your truck?
These transmissions hold up pretty good with just a 4lber from what I've seen.
Sorry to hear about your bad luck.

 

Truck has under 47,000 miles on it...
Im considering taking it down to Dantes Modular performance...

 

ALL Lightning trans should have the FTVB (or equal) in it, other than that YES the stock Trans can hold A LOT MORE than a 4lb pulley. V ran his 100% stock tranny for hundreds of hundreds of runs at the track (including 10's), and drove it around daily (back then) for many many years and put many trouble free miles on it. I had the stock trans in Blacky#1 for all the years I had it, and I also had a stock trans in The Red Rocket (both were built L's with 500+ RWHP) and never had a single problem....

Of course had one gone on me and I had to replace it I DEF would consider replacing it with something better. Now I have a BTS and words can not describe the DIFF. BTS IS DA SCHITT

 

It's hit or miss.

As Gregg Evans explains, a 4r100 is rated for 1,000 lbs ft. It has a 2:1 multiplication factor in the converter. So stock, the tranny sees 900 lbs ft, meaning that it is 90% of the way to its design limit.

You might be able to put 1,200 lbs ft to it for a lifetime, but it might break stock.

 

check your Email...
Rich

 

I still have my stock tranny and I am at 602/661. I have had a problem with it not wanting to shift 1-2 at WOT. The line pressure was increased through the tune and my tranny does not have a modified valve body. My new tune reduced the line pressure back to stock and the tranny shifts ok but is, of course, long and sluggish. I have 73K on the tranny and it has seen 450+ most of its life.....Under normal driving it is flawless.

 

That is what I was going to suggest, take it to Dante. A buddy of mine just got his back from Dante last month, what a difference. The truck even feels smoother until the hammer drops, then hang on. From what I gathered, the price for a complete rebuild, less torque converter, was around $2500. That is a lot cheaper than the Ford price and it will have the newer style heavy duty goodies in it, not the bone stock. I think he even does the valve body as well.

The only logistical problem is getting to Dante's place.

 

Hostile-Thanks for the offer on the built tranny, I couldnt get my truck down to San Diego, I live three hours away, towing down there was out of the question..

Anyways, I took my truck to a performance transmission shop in the area, the owner has done several Lightnings before, he took apart the trans and the failure was detected to be 2nd gear which was completely broken into lots of little pieces...He said it was from hitting the Passing gear-(2nd) too much, after I thought about it I realized our trucks shift hard down to 2nd with or without a tune, to get all that power out of the automoatic tranny...

This time around I'm having him put all the heavy duty pieces in, all the bells and whistles, as well as mildly upgrading the shift kit. All for $3000, I thought this was a pretty good deal, I need my truck back badly its my daily driver...

 

That is a good deal if you end up with a nice strong built Trans
Best of Luck and let us know how it works out