well a few weeks ago i had a shop put in some new u joints and a powertraxs unit on my truck. later that night my truck breaks down and transmission fluid is all over the road. when i finally had a chance to get a good look at my truck i found out that one of the caps for the u joints was missing. im not a mechanic, but i do know it takes a hell load of force, or not putting in the clips in right would be a reason for it to fall off. im also thinking the shop forgot to put a cap on. well this cost me a tailshaft extension crack, transmission housing crack, and the yoke had so much play that it cause tranny damage. its in the shop and getting fixed and will be ready tomarrow. the guy that put the u joints will accept responsiblilty and will pay for labor and anything that was damage on the tranny. my tranny had over 160,000 trouble free miles. im gonna be out $1000 because i have to pay for the rebuild part that was not caused by the u joint. does this sound right? i know i had 160000 miles but the tranny was fine and i think it could have gone easily over 200000 withoud a prob. also should i purchase a transgo shift kit and some sonax valves? anything else recommended?

 

HI!... If your going to have to do a rebuild on your tranny anyways, you might as well do it right the 1ST time. Get the TRANSGO, and SONNAX valves. Use a good full synthetic fluid like REDLINE D4 and make sure you get some good clutches installed like ALTO's. Also suggest that they install TEFLON seals on one of the shafts. I can't remember the name of the part right now but when they built up my 4R70-W for race duty the stock seals (rings?) were leaking like sive. This was causing the tranny not to build up line pressure like it was supposed to. I was told that FORD's did this on purpose to allow for blow by. All I know is that my tranny gained 45psi in line pressure after the seals (rings?) were replaced with TEFLON ones. Hope this helps you out a bit.

 

thanks for the info neal. do u recommend anything to keep the tranny temp cool? and something that will cool it at a certain temp? and how bout the tranny fluid from amsoil? do u think that would be any good? the guy at the tranny shop said they where gonna use mercon v. is that ok?

 

HI!... The MERCON V is just the stock fluid. It will start to burn around 210 degree's. The REDLINE D4 is good up to around 285 DEGREE's. If I were you I were you I would get a trans temp guage from AUTOMETER (mechanical), so you can keep an eye on your tranny temp. Also get a aftermarket tranny cooler like the PERMA-COOL 10" X 14" aluminum style with the 10" electric fam mounted to it. Wire it up to a manual switch. I have my lighted manual swith mounted in my tranny temp guage pod. You can also add a 2ND external tranny filter, also made by PERMA-COOL.

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Hello Neal,

Is there anything special one would need to do to switch to the Redline D4? I assume it wold involve a flush and getting all the Mercon V out.

I find myself driving the crap out of my truck lately and with the firmer shifsts from my superchip, I am constantly worrying about the extra stress I am putting on my tranny. I do have the factory tranny cooler, for whatever that is worth.

Thanks,

Rocks