What..... Is it the 4R70W transmission in the 03?

[STRAN]

Gottcha,

Sorry guys, I have a simple question that my quick scanning of the site has not given me a definite answer.

Is it the 4R70W transmission in the 03?

Mine is showing signs of failure so I am looking into my options. The symptom is a bumping or shifting in and out of OD, giving it gas or turning the OD off makes it stop but now the same is happening when the OD is off. Behaves fine when cold. I think the mountainous terrain was the final straw, who knows what the PO did to it and I hit the throttle hard in OD plenty of times.

The plan is to buy a low mileage used trany and rebuild the original; or something like that.

[Joe Walsh]

Yes,
4R70W in '03 and 4R75W in '04.

BTW: How many miles do you have on the transmission and have you ever changed the trans fluid and filter?

My Grand Marquis had similar OD issues, including shuddering and balky lock/unlock performance.
Flushed the trans fluid and put in a new filter and it ran like champ ever since.

[STRAN]

Never, (I am ashamed) in my defense it has been a couple of tuff years. Anyway, SWEET!!!! I was going to try that but assumed the easy fix would not work, my luck runs like that.

[SC Cheesehead]

Never, (I am ashamed) in my defense it has been a couple of tuff years. Anyway, SWEET!!!! I was going to try that but assumed the easy fix would not work, my luck runs like that.

yeah, definitely have the routine maintenance done first before going into R&R mode.

[STRAN]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaahhhh.

So I dropped the pan and just had to try the jmod. Now I have no OD. Sounds just like this:

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?t=64446

But I can not view the PDF that was the cause.

Anyway, I plan on dropping the pan again tomorrow, and the valve body as I am sure I put a small square screen in the wrong spot and botched install of the 1-2 shift accumulator, then torque all the bolts to specs.

Wish me luck and advice would be cool too.

[SC Cheesehead]

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?t=71257

[STRAN]

Ok, so I am in trouble here. I have dropped the pan 3 times and the valve body twice. Did plenty of on line research and have come to the conclusion that I am screwed.

First go: replaced filter and fluid and did the Jmod per the sticky thread but did not remove any springs, just drilled out the indicated holes.

• Drill the holes as prescribed in Jerry’s document (Figure 1)
o I drilled mine to the following specs:
o Holes #2, #4, #5, #9, #11 – 7/64 drill bit
o Hole #10 – 3/32 drill bit (I used 7/64 as I did not have 3/32 bit)

Put it back together and realized I left the filter off and one bolt. Used 8 qrts of Meracon V. The car was drivable but only barely.

Second go: Did not drop the valve body, put the bolt in and filter, used the new fluid I had put in the first time. In draining the fluid through the return cooler line I noticed the fluid was brown but turned a fresh red. (assumed this was left over in the transmission). Added another Qrt on Mer. V (total of nine) as the dip stick indicated the level was low. The car was better but no OD and no 4th (3rd), the rpm's would climb until the trany slipped at around 3500.

Third go: dropped valve body and checked what I had done. There was a small square screen that I had thought had fallen off the plate, I put it back on a square opening that was the perfect size, wrong. Put it in its correct location. There is a spring and retaining clip(?) that drops out of the main trany body when the valve body is removed, I had put retaining clip back in upside down (the point facing up), corrected that. My torque wrench only goes up to 75ft pds and would not click even though I was really tightening them down . I was worried it is broken so I stopped using it and did the best I could. Reassembled (made sure I put ALL the parts back in and correctly), used new fluid Mer. V, Castrol, 8 qrts. After the failed test drive I checked the fluid level and it was barely on the dip stick, added two more qrts with on effect. The fluid on the dip stick is clean and clear to the point where I was having trouble reading it, I am even concerned that the reservoir is really low in spite of more fluid.

Test drive: great in reverse, great from first to second and to third. No fourth or OD, reeves to about 3500 and slips.

Concerns: the position of the rooster comb. Should the roller be engaging it at the end tooth or in the middle of the comb?
"Towards the upper right, remove the bolt with the rooster comb spring (has a roller attached
to it ), makes sure to keep the bolt in the hole of the spring as to not lose the orientation of
either piece."


There is only one separator plate gasket, I did not replace it.

Where is the fluid going? There are no leaks.

[babbage]

Should have just done a flush and new fluid first. I suspect that your OD band (4th) gear is burnt up and slipping, but now that you've messed with it - j-mod there is no sure way to tell. Also the torque spec is 7.5 pounds NOT 75. Verify this.

You can try to adjust the shifter linkage. Unbolt it - put shifter in 1st gear. then manually take pliers etc and put trans in first gear - tighten linkage down. Test it. Drive it. You can do this without dropping pan.

[STRAN]

Yes, about a year ago I drove up route 58 to Tehachapi when we got there the trans had over heated, my first indication was when we exited the highway and the car would not move after stopping. It has been down hill ever since. (pardon the pun)

As for torque the J-mod PDF calls out 90 pounds. oh, that says inch pounds. Well good thing I ditched the torque wrench.


• Place the new gasket on the valve body
• Clean the separator plate and reinstall
• Install the new top gasket
• Reinstall the circular reinforcement plates (torque to 90 inch pounds)

[justbob]

A. Did you have an OD problem before the Jmod? B. If not, did you take out the BIG accumulator (OD)?

[STRAN]

A. Yes had the OD problem which started the whole fluid change/J-mod.
B. No I did not take out the OD accumilator

Thanks for the reply.

[rudaluda]

OD band (4th) gear burnt up sounds really bad but you could always just buy 4R70W Transmissions For Sale (http://www.mwdauto.com/)