The overdrive light on the end of the gearshift for my 98 4.6 is flashing. Am I in danger of catastrophic transmission failure?

 

The OD light flashing means it has a trouble code and is in limp home mode. the line pressures are maxed etc. so i is hard on the tranny long term. Take it somewhere and get codes pulled and post results and people will chime in and help.

 

Well it only comes on after driving it for a while. I'm thinking if your idea doesn't work I'll just park it on the railroad tracks and wish it the best of luck

 

Gee, that's really thoughtful for the crew of the train.....

Jusy go get the codes read.... it might be a simple fix.

Steve

 

my truck did the same s^^t for a month then i lost my speedo. if it shifts fine i would suspect the speedometer drive gear as a possibility, it is a simple task to replace.

to get to it:
drop your driveline, pull the extension housing off the transfer case. (make sure you pull your speedometer sensor / gear assy out first) there MAY be a wire you have to snip (well i did to make my life easier, i just wire nutted it together afterwards)

theres a "spring clip" toward the front of the shaft, to remove it use your thumbs and push on it (catch it with your fingers if you can, if not, just watch er fly)

next UNDER the plastic drive gear is a metal ball, like one from a ball bearing. locate this before you slide your drive gear forward. slide your gear forward, remove the retaining ball. the only thing i have noticed that actually keeps this damn gear on is epoxy or superglue, a good one.

 

I heard that autozone will scan the computer for you. Is this true?

 

Yes, AZ will scan for free but they have low end OBII scanners and typically will not show tranny codes. Might be worth a shot though since it is free. I have a 1-2 shift error code and AZ scanner said no codes shown, dealership could read the OD light code.

 

Advance has good scanners, and they read for free as well. I had this same problem, flashing OD light, tranny was whining really loud, got it scanned, shows a "Vehicle Speed Sensor A" code. Replaced the VSS, didn't do any good. The truck will not go into four wheel drive, but it sounds and shifts like it's in 4-low. HALP! TIA guys.

 

Took the housing off the end of the tranny, everything looked fine in there. Spun the VSS with a drill while it was hooked up and the ignition was on, speedometer didn't register anything. I now think that my problem may be a wiring issue somewhere. Any ideas guys?

 

i believe that means your vss itself is having problems, may need replaced. does it feel like it has notch's or does it spin smoothly? mine feels like it has notch's.

 

The first thing I did after scanning the codes and getting a VSS code was replace the VSS. So the VSS is brand new. Anyways, I hooked the old one up too and tried the drill trick with it, same thing. So I've got two VSS's, one of which I know is good, the other could go either way, and neither of them work when hooked up. Where should I look next?

 

sounds like electrical downstream from the vss...

but i have to ask. your truck the 1982 f150? does that even have any electrical to the vss in 82?

 

This is what an '82 VSS looks like, but it's strictly for cruise control.

 

Took it to get it scanned, no stored codes. Railroad tracks it is

 

I had the same problem with my 03 Lightning. The overdrive light would flash off and on sparatically. I noticed when this happened, the transmission shifted extremely hard. (Almost like a shift kit was installed) This would only happen when in truck was driven for a long period of time. Much like yourself, I wasnt able to read codes even with my programmer. I installed an inline valve mod and I haven't had this problem since installation. Good to go for two months now.



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2003 Gray Lightning
Ported blower,Excal2, 6lber,Lfp Idlers, JlP F. CAI, TR-6, Bassanni BX catback, 2400 Maf, Traction Bars, LC-1 Wideband, Boost gauge..