So, My truck started acting funny Monday night. While driving on a level road, going between 35 and 40 it started to feel like it was missing.(I just replaced my Coils, Boots and Springs last week.) I turned off the o\d and everything seemed fine, well as long as I had the O\D off. At the time it seemed like my truck was shifting at a much lower RPM than normal.
I drove to and from work on Tuesday and Wednesday and there wasn't any issues either, as long as I keep the O\D off.
This morning I was driving into work and at a light as I started the truck almost died, almost as if the Converter was locked and wouldn't allow the motor to turn. I also noticed if I baby it it has these strange shifting issues more than if I run it harder. After a right hand turn, while accelerating it downshifted from 2nd to 1st. The next red light I held the brake and gave a little throttle and it felt like a hard shift, even though the truck wasn't moving, and the rpm's were below 1200. So for the rest of the drive into work (4 Blocks) I would manually shift it, and it never had any issues, again with the o\d off.

The only thing I can think is that my wife may have overheated the trans this past week while driving my truck down a long steep grade. She said that she put it in second gear while driving down. I wasn't with her, so I am not sure how hard she was on the poor old beast.

 

How many miles on it?

 

140,000

 

So it seems to me that it is either the Solenoids, or the converter. I am going with the Solenoids to start with because it is the simplest. I'll drop the pan tonight and see if it is full of junk, if it is i'll more than likely just buy a rebuilt transmission and a new converter. I can pick one up for $1100.00

 

Have you checked for any OBD2 codes with a scanner that can read Ford transmission codes?

 

No codes. Making me think it's not gonna be the darn solenoids.

 

I ordered the parts today. I may as well go step by step with this. No one locally had the parts in stock. The dealers price is only $30 more than AutoZone. But, the dealer has the best price on the Mercon V by far. $6.00 a quart vs $9.99 everywhere else. Most parts stores I went to today don't even carry it.

The photo makes the fluid look much darker than it was. It smelled like Transmission fluid to me.

 

It looks like there is grit or debris in the fluid. Can you put the fluid in a clear container and take a picture?

 

Not any more. There wasn't anything that I could feel between my fingers in the fluid. I'll have my parts tomorrow and see what it does, if anything.

 

Ok. It looked like there was fine grey/black sediment in the fluid. Unless it was the picture.

 

There is some. What are your thoughts? Nothing was gritty at all.

 

Sediment is normal.

 

Ok, here is an update. I installed the new solenoids and filter, put the pan back on and filled it up. I took it for a drive and it is still acting funny. I took it over and took my mechanic for a ride, the symptoms have him baffled as well. It acts like it is going into neutral while shifting into second. If you baby it, it will shift into second, third and then OD. He hooked it up to his scanner and came back with nothing. He looked up some issues by symptom and it may be the number 7 check ball in the valve body. So, when I have some time I'll drop the pan again and pull the valve body. The check ball is like $2. If anyone has any other suggestions let me know.

 

I got up this morning and felt like I had to get this taken care of. I sucked the pan out and dropped it. I pulled the filter and removed the solenoids. I dropped the valve body and had a bit of a shock.

 

Let's try this again.

Neat. Metal.
I had to take a break and look at an exploded view of the transmission. I finally found what it was. A snap ring. Turns out that this is a pretty common issue. The snap ring on the 1 to 2 accumulator valve had broken. Under high torque it was allowing fluid to get past the seal, causing the slipping. I called my local transmission parts supplier and ordered a new top plate for my valve body, as the stock one is too thin, and the 2 to 3 accumulator actually cracks it. As well as the new snap ring for the 1 to 2 accumulator valve. All.put back together and running like a dream again.