Well I just picked it up from the dealer today and it's running fine. Turned out that the trans was fine. They said that the wires were shot and I went ahead and had them install a new set. They checked out the plugs and said they looked fine however when I got the bill they had it listed that they replaced #3. I looked in the box for the wires when I got in my truck and sure enough they changed a plug. It really didn't look that bad but it's not worth arguing with them about a $10 plug. Main thing is it's running fine.

Sidewinder, you were right in a way, although i never thought the wires would would cause problems so specific like this. Another thing they scanned the computer as well and found no codes. Also you might want to try a different service department, I took it in for the trans to be looked at yesterday and they called me back yesterday afternoon and said it would be tomorrow as the trans guy determined it was not the trans. They had their drivetrain guy look at it this morning and they called me by 8:30 this morning with their diagnosis of bad wires and they had it done by 2:00.

Elder Ford service department in Troy Michigan always comes through.

Thanks for the help

Speedy

 

Thanks for the post, Speedy. My '01 SC 5.4 is doing the exact same thing. I took it in 2 weeks ago and the tranny tech said that nothing was wrong. The service dept. just acknowledged my concern. The problem seemed to get worse and I have become quite adept at figuring out exactly how hard to push the accelerator pedal to make the shudder occur while going up an incline in 4th gear.

I took it in for a normal 35000 service and told them that the problem didn't go away and they again didn't find anything since, as you mentioned, no fault codes will were generated.

So, now, armed with this thread, I will take my truck in on Saturday morning to get this fixed. Thanks!

 

Just got back from Drew Ford. Sure enough, cylinder #1 was misfiring. A new coil and plug and I was out of there without paying a cent. Thanks again Speedy. I took in a copy of this thread so there wouldn't be any misunderstanding.

 

Hey Mack4000,

I was actually debating on posting the information after I got back from the dealer. Mainly as it seemed that everyone had lost interest in this thread and didn't really care to know what the problem was. Glad to hear that my information was useful in getting your dealer to fix the problem. I have always hated it when dealers say they can not verify concern. At least in your case they said they verified the concern, just couldn't locate the problem. Something to be said for a good service department that goes above and beyond what they are required to do. Now if only Ford had more service departments like Elder Ford in Troy, MI they might have more repeat buyers.

Glad your truck is back up to par!

 

I was looking for shifts kits for my girlfriends car and came across this forum. Odds are your real problem is converter shudder. It's also known as 3-4 synchronous bind that is found in many AOD/E and AOD/EW (4R70W) transmissions. It as a low shake almost like your shifting a manual transmission to soon. She owns a '93 Lincoln Mark VIII, with a 4.6 cobra and a 4R70W, with the same problem you all are talking about. I tried the fluid thing and it works for a while, but your problem is more than that. A quick fix is to put in a shift kit, I would suggest you look here: www.transgoperformance.com. You can find one for about $120 and they don't need any special tool, and take about 3 hours to install. If that doesn't fix your problem check out this site: www.autotransinc.com. They have a chip you install onto your valve body that will fix the "software problem" your trans could be having. More info go here: www.sonnax.com/bulletins/tech/T3-EL-601.pdf
Good luck.
Redneck

 

I had a shudder last winter. Plus the 2-3 or I guess you can call it 3-4 shift was super delayed when it was cold until it warmed up. Changed fluid and filter. Went away. Now have something back but it shifted weird when going from 3 to O/D. Plus O/D light was flashing after that odd shift. Did a short 15mile trip the other day and no shudder or flashing O/D light. Fluid smells kinda odd. It's been almost 2yrs since last change so going to change it soon and modify the valve body separator plate (effectively cheap shift kit). There's a lot of reading you can do right here: Big 4R70W articles!

I've heard you should change the Mercon V in the tranny every 20-30k miles.

 

For Mercon V all I've seen in the local parts stores are these two:
Quaker State "Dextron III/Mercon/Mercon V" semi-synthetic blend
Castrol Syntec "Mercon V" semi-synthetic blend.

The Q.S. was $5.26 a litre/quart and the Castrol was about $0.75 more expensive. Didn't see any full synthetic.

I bought the Quaker State. See how it goes.

 

My friends truck was doing this and he had it flushed and it went away for about 30,000 miles and then returned. Then we read about a recall that ford had on the lock up torque convertor. You dont need to replace the convertor or the tranny it was a simple silenoid or something and cost like 50 dollars. my dad installed it i will find out more and write it.

 

Any info would be much appreciated. Also, I'm not sure but at some point Ford went from a 2.5" OD servo to a 2.7" OD servo. It fits in the same bore but the 2.5 uses a metal sleeve. It's a recommended upgrade in the Cougar Club tech articles. It might have something to do with the crap OD shifting.