Hey guys I'm hoping you can help me out here or give me some ideas. Truck is a 2000 5.4 with the 4r70. The other day I was driving some pretty steep roads out elk hunting and when I hit the pavement I noticed my transmission acting funny. When I come to a stop or slow down enough that the transmission shifts down to 1st gear and start to accelerate it will shift to 2nd normally. as I continue to accelerate to the rpm's where it would normally shift to 3rd it doesnt shift, the rpms will keep climbing until i let off the throttle and it the truck then unlocks from 2nd and there is about a 1-2 second delay before it shifts into third, it almost feels like someone shifting extremely slow on a manual transmission. After it is in 3rd it will shift as normal into overdrive. The weird part about it is when I'm cruising in 3rd or overdrive and I come upon a hill or try to accelerate and it downshifts to 2nd it will shift out of 2nd into 3rd gear as normal. I only experience the 2-3 shift problems when I go all the way down to 1st. I haven't changed the fluid in about 20K since I got it and I don't know when it was changed before that. I plan on doing a fluid exchange and not a flush. Anybody have any other ideas?

Thanks

 

You don't have to use an exchange machine, the 2000 still had a drain plug on the torque converter so you can easily do it yourself.

 

Valve sticking in the valve body. Flush isn't a bad idea.

Most often it takes disassembly and manually unsticking the valve though.

Darrin

 

I called the ford dealer in town and they said they do not do a power flush he said that it just uses the pressure off of the pump from the rig. He said that he would recommend that over just dropping the pan. Any thoughts here? Thanks again for the opinions.

 

Yes, that's the best way to do it other than simply dropping the pan and draining the TC.

 

Thanks, not sure it will fix it but it's worth a shot and needs to be done anyway.

 

Got it flushed at the dealer and there was no change in shifting. This afternoon I drove it and now it will not shift into 3rd at all, just neutrals out when it tries to shift. No od light flashing. Truck has 114k miles. I'm thinking it's probably time to have somebody tear into it.

 

I've done a ton of these and there are a few things that can cause this.

Going neutral tells me that it isn't going into 3rd when it's supposed to and it's most likely staying in 2nd until a shift to OD is commanded. At this point it could go neutral if the direct clutch isn't applying for any reason. It could also drop back into first when shift solenoid 1 re-applies for the shift to OD. Dropping back into first could make you think it went neutral because of the sudden rise in RPM due to the downshift to a stupid gear for the speed you are going.

Could be a shift solenoid, control issue, direct clutch issue or a broken hard parts like the stub shaft. The intermittent scenario you gave above lends itself more to a control issue, but remember this is only going off of what you said above. I am on my computer in Indiana reading your very basic description on the internet and trying to diagnose based off of that limited info. Not the best scenario for accuracy, but we can hopefully at least get you headed in the right direction.

Let me know if there is anything I can do.

Darrin

 

Where are you located by the way?

 

Darrin, thank you for the response. I am located in Yakima, Washington. I was also thinking that it could be a solenoid because up until yesterday it would still shift into third when you got it up to 35 mph or so and let off the throttle. It would then coast for about 3-5 seconds and then you could feel it go Into 3rd. It would then shift to od as normal. It would never even try to shift into third if I was on the throttle at all.

 

Well, hard to say that you could be further away in the US. LOL

I would seriously think in the direction of the valve body. Might be a good time for an upgrade

 

Yeah I think you are probably right. I'm taking it into a shop in town today that I've heard good things about. It's only money right? Lol

 

Best of luck with it and let me know if I can help in any way.

Darrin

 

Thanks and will do. I'll update as to what we find out about it.

 

Sorry it took so long to get back on here. Turns out I had to have a rebuild, got it done by PAC trans here in Yakima for about 2500 bucks.