OK, so I've had this truck for about a month now, tonight I finally get stupid and got the thing stuck in a deep mud hole, water up over the front bumper, high enough the fan started slinging water all over the negine and got the distributor soaked. I spent maybe 10 minutes trying to rock up out of it and gave up, never really pushed things though.

I should state that the shift from 2nd to 3rd has been wierd since I bought the truck, it doesn't shift until the RPMs are around 2500 to 3000 and then slowly shifts from 2nd to 3rd with a gradual lock up, shift to OD has been fine though.

The tow truck came and got me out of the hole, but the engine died when I put it in gear, so I ended up having tow me home to get things dried out.
He had me put it in neutral, got it back on the truck (front wheels) and towed me back into town, probably hit 45MPH for awhile on about a ten mile trip. The damn thing started right up in my driveway of course so I decided to go to the car wash and get the mud off so I could look at things, on the way there the engine was sputtering a bit (wet distributor), but it went into gear OK (1st and reverse at least) but the shift from 1st to second was real spongy and from 2nd to 3rd non-existent.

I checked the fluid, it was a bit low but adding didn't change anything. The fluid was clean and didn't have a burnt smell either.

So, any ideas?

 

what engine/tranny do you have?

...zap!

 

Weather you have the E4OD (door code E) or the 4R70w (door code U), I bet you sucked in some water. Hopefully a full trans flush will clear things up. It matters what tranny you have though. The E4OD uses Mercon, and the 4R70w uses Mercon V.

Adrianspeeder

 

The engine is a 5.8L, the tranny is a E4OD.

I just got done looking some more, crawled under the truck, it would appear that at the very least, the tranny pan wasn't in deep water, not even any mud up under it, the linkage appears solid (not bent or anything). A couple of things I have just noticed, the OD switch light on the shifter is blinking (even after disconnecting the battery for about 5 minutes), with 1st gear selected, the transmission shifts into what I assume is second gear after the RPMs hit about 3000, but if I put it in second, it goes into second and stays there but the TC is definitely not locking up when it's in second, still no 3rd or OD, in fact when it's in drive after a spongy shift to second, it slips like hell.

I added Mercon III earlier, according to my Hanes it's the right stuff.

 

Flashing OD light means the computer has stored a trouble code related to the tranny. Kinda boring to do, but you can pull the codes yourself using this procedure.

http://fordfuelinjection.com/?p=13

There is no such animal as Mercon III. There is a dexron III which is the same as Mercon. So as long as you didn't use Mercon V, your good.

Adrianspeeder

 

Sorry, Mercon, Dextron, it's been a bad night.

A side note: after the tow truck driver got my truck out of the hole the freaking idiot owner (me) put it in, he got me up on the wheel racks (rear wheels, didn't strap them down into the racks, so he's a freakin idiot as well) and then as he was pulling onto the road from the entrance to the boat ramp, he hit some deep ruts and instead of using a little finesse, he tried to gun it up on the road and my shiny purple truck jumped off the racks, and the frame landed on the racks, which unfortunately then slipped off and as it hit the ground bounced hard enough that the rear corner of the fiberglass bedside came down on the rack and trashed it. It also apparently flexed the bed enough to trash the Leer fiberglass bed cover, ripping it about halfway off it's hinge.

After I got out of the truck and saw the damage, I just sat down on the ground, smoked a cig and watched him get the racks cleared and hook up a winch to pull me onto the road. When he was ready to start winching, I said " Do I want to know the answer to what you know I'm going to ask?" To which he replied "It's your problem".

I said "excuse me???" to which he replied "You're the one who got stuck in the mud"

I think at that point this guy realized that he was 10 miles from town in the dark under a railroad bridge with a 6' 240 pound guy whose truck he just trashed and that he had just told him it wasn't his problem and immediately back pedaled and said to bring it over in the morning and we'd figure something out.

I used to work for a towing company back home, I called the owner earlier and told him what happened, he said it's pretty simple, the guy is liable for two reasons. One, before a driver even hooks up to the vehicle, the car's owner or operator has to be made aware of any liability waivers regarding damage incurred during the "extraction", most companies require you to sign off before they unroll the winch, since the guy never said squat about liability or had me sign anything, he'd have a very hard time getting any judge to back him.

And two, despite the drivers claims that his racks were "strapless", most companies choose to use straps regardless for two reasons, the strapless design is only for paved roads, maybe smooth gravel, not rough terrain, and even chuck holes have been known to throw vehicles, and secondly, the system depends on vehicle weight to hold it down, he should have at the least lifted the front, not the back and he should have used straps given the conditions, in other words, even if he had my signature on a damage waiver, it doesn't mean squat if the driver doesn't follow common sense and accepted practice etc.

 

I dont think there is such a thing. What would keep it from coming off if he slammed on the brakes? I have a freind that drove a tow truck for 4 years, Hes never heard of it??? I think he was just too lazy to put the straps on.

Hell, the guys that drive the roll-off flat beds use straps. This guy should have too.



While this "extraction" waiver might be true, I think it pertains to damage that occures when he is pulling your truck out of the ditch. I think he is 100% liable for being incompitent and losing your truck while driving down the road.

 

Well, today has been a major pain in the ***, the only good news I've had is that the tow company is going to pay for the damage. The bad news is, it's now sitting at Moffit Ford with the tranny problems.

First they call me and tell me that the TR sensor is bad, $275.00. Then after they replace the TR, it starts slipping like crazy in all gears. When I drove it in this morning I had 1st and second, now nothing apparently. So they tell me they have to pull the tranny and start looking inside.

 

*cringe* I feel for ya. I made the mistake of letting a tranny shop "inspect the transmission" for $150 when there was no major problems (had a little clunk when shifting). They neglected to tell me that it would cost $1500+ to put it back together (Thanks All Transmission World, I love ya, no really, you scum sucking bastages). It sounds in your case that either something has gone south in there or the TC has gone south. Hopefully it's not anything real major.

 

Well they didn't have to look too far I guess. The transmission is full of water. Ford puts a reman with 36/36 warranty at $3000.00 installed, Mitchell puts an inhouse rebuild with 12/12 warranty at about $1600 which are the two places I've gotten quotes from.

So let's see, I have $2850 on the original purchase about a month ago, $500.00 on the oil pan, $150 for the new springs, about $100.00 fixing the rockers, for a grand total of $3600 for a 1995 F150 SC XLT Flareside with a Kelley value of about $5000.00.

The body estimates are at $3500.00, I'm sure the insurance company will want to total the thing out, my fear is that they try to use the tranny issue to completely devalue the truck at this point. The consensus here is to get the tranny work started before the insurance company get's involved, that way I'll have more leverage on the final payout if they total and I keep the truck and maybe enough to push them into repairing it.

 

Update:

So we decided to save some bucks and go with the 12/12. But get this, I called the Ford dealer (Moffit's in Boone Iowa) to see how much we would owe them with the work they've done already (TSR replacement, pull the tranny) and they told me $275.00.

We go to pay the bill today and get it towed and they gave me a bill (labor only) for about $425.00. They started handing me excuses about this and that, and that's when I noticed the bill didn't include the TSR. When I asked about it, they said they had taken it off because they "thought they were going to put a new tranny in".

Long story short, I handed them a check for $275.00 with a note that said either refund the $100.00 for the TSR they took back off my truck with 7 days or I'd get a lawyer. Then I filed a complaint with them with the BBB and the Iowa Attorney Generals office.

They also couldn't explain why, after they were told the tranny had been underwater, that they didn't just drop the pan first and look, instead of tearing it apart and trying to run up the bill.

Anyway, it's at the other shop now, they said they should have it done by Friday.