i just bought my truck friday it,s a 2001 sport side. i ran into a guy sunday who new the previous owner and said that tranny was going out so he put something in the tranny to make it not slip untill he sold it i have put 350 miles on it since i bought it with no problems can any one tell me what to look for the fluid was a little low but it look,s nomal smeel,s normal the pan look,s as thogh it,s never been off any thing else i can look for.

 

Did the previous owner keep maintenance records? How many miles on the rig? If you suspect that the fluid has never been changed, that would be the very first thing I'd do. I think Ford recommends ATF change every 30K. I did my first ATF change at 10K while changing the filter. Then I did a flush right afterwards and installed full synthetic ATF.

DEPENDING ON MILES, I would drop the pan, change the filter, refill with new ATF. Run it about 100 miles, then flush the entire TC and tranny and use whatever brand Mercon V you prefer.

I use synthetic and will only use it. Mobil 1 Mercon V is $5.92/quart at Walmart here. Amsoil is roughly $8/quart as is Redline and Royal Purple.

 

the truck has 80,000 miles as far as serveice records i don,t know i bought the truck from a dealer. as said in my orginal post i have put over 300 miles with out any problems seem,s like by now it should have atleast sliped right.

 

Even at 80K miles, I would do a fluid and filter change, not flush. In fact, you can buy the Walmart brand Mercon V for about $3.47/quart. You may want to go buy 11 quarts, and do 2 consecutive changes with anywhere between 100-500 miles in between.

Only then would I consider a flush, and to me, it is worth the cost of a second replacement filter. (I use Wix at $16.00).

My neighbor has been changing his ATF every 20K miles and changed the filter every other. He now has 130K miles on it and just drained his TC and tranny and filled with 13 quarts of Amsoil. Has put roughly 2000 miles on it since then and is very pleased. All of the noises he had have gone now.

I don't think making a slow conversion to synthetic (if that is what you choose to do) would do any harm whatsoever beginning at 80K.