Trans Blown Again!!!!!

[bosscj72]

Well after a nice visit to Carlisle enjoying the show and having my trunk and back seat filled with parts (for my old classics mostly) I was driving just west of Hagerstown on I-70 and went to pass a Subaru with the foot all the way down the trans went into 2nd and lost high and overdrive after the pass! I had to drive for about 6 miles to get to the next exit at 4,800 RPM (203 degrees hit on the run!). Drove back to Hagerstown Ford and they gave me 2 options.

1. rebuilt 12 months 12,000 miles $3,000

2. Ford 4R75W with 3 year and unlimited miles for guess how much? $3,000!!!!

Now they are trying to find a Marauder trans which will have "all new components" This is suppose to be the exact one for the Maruader.... Mine is a 2004 with just over 109,175 miles.

I just replaced this thing after it Blew out in Albany, GA only 7,500 miles ago!!!

I use my car, I have a USA made trans cooler that everyone recommended in series with the Ford one, the car is driven mostly on nice days and these transmissions remind me of my C-4's in my 1972 Mustang!!! I went through 3 of them until I placed a C-6 in it! My black 1973 Cougar which is a 14 second car has had the same C-6 in it since 1991 and it still chirps rubber 1st-2nd and 2nd-3rd!

The guy (a Ford repairman) who rebuilt the transmission put in a Trans-Go shift kit, Kevlar bands, Alto Clutches etc so it was built right. The Sprag blew out before. This time he felt it is the Bearing which drives/engages the 3rd and OD gears.

Very unhappy in Hagertown, MD!!!! :mad2:

Dave

PS I wish I can get my C-6 to fit!!!

[ctrlraven]

When you went to pass did you turn off OD?

[Siege]

Was the OEM cooler replaced after the last transmission failure?

[justbob]

Maybe just have whatever broke replaced?

Sent from my Ally using Tapatalk 2

[SC Cheesehead]

When you went to pass did you turn off OD?

That's what I'm wondering. These trannys don't handle forced OD to 2nd downshifts very well.

[Comin' in Hot]

I had that happen, it turned out to be broken wire

[LANDY]

Typical stubshaft failure, there is no need to rebuild the whole trans. Just get a hardened one and turn the od off when you pass people

[babbage]

Was the OEM cooler replaced after the last transmission failure?

Agree - metal left in transcooler can ruin new trans.


Typical stubshaft failure, there is no need to rebuild the whole trans. Just get a hardened one and turn the od off when you pass people

This is very likely.

[bosscj72]

Nope was left in Drive and shifted to 2nd and at 80 MPH went to upshift and lost 3rd and 4th. Had second though.

The original trans cooler is still in line with the after market one.

I know they will run the cleaner through the fluid lines before they install the new Ford transmission. The trans is coming from Atlanta (where we live!!!!) and should be here tomorrow.

Yep from now on:

1. Over drive off
2. Harden input shaft will be added next rebuild (since Ford warrantees this one for 3 years and as many miles as I can put on it I will run the wheels off of it!
3. Wish they would have used an E4OD behind these cars not a 1980 designed transmission that was marginal at best.

My car isn't pushing 300 rear wheel HP. More like 230 max I would thnk.

Oh well live learn and make sure to avoid wide open throttle when OD is being used!

Dave

[babbage]

The original trans cooler is still in line with the after market one.

I know they will run the cleaner through the fluid lines before they install the new Ford transmission. The trans is coming from Atlanta (where we live!!!!) and should be here tomorrow.

Yep from now on:

1. Over drive off


The coolers have a thermostat that should open around 180 - when they flush the lines this bypass is closed, so they can't flush the metal out of the coolers.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, on this. ^^^ Seems logical to get new coolers. I thought it was SOP to replace cooler after a trans failure.

For the overdrive off Issue, you can get a tune that doesn't allow a 4-2 downshift.

Good luck.

[RF Overlord]

The guy (a Ford repairman) who rebuilt the transmission put in a Trans-Go shift kit, That may have been part of your problem. Here's a direct quote from Jerry Wroblewski who helped design the 4R70W and is the J in J-mod:

"Having helped design and worked on the trans that's in your GT, probably working on it before most on this board had drivers licenses, and being the Jerry of the Jerry Mod, I think I'm qualified to pipe in here and add my 2 cents....

I dont' care who recommends what, TransGo=bad. Here is why.

Once upon a time, oh 10 years or so ago, a higher up at the Blue Oval mandated to us that we make the transmission shift out of manual low gear into 2nd even if you didn't move the shifter. Kicking and screaming we complied. Starting in the late 90's we were able to change this back due to early retirement packages.

Along comes TransGo trying to be hero. They are going to change a whole bunch of stuff in the valve body to prevent the trans shifing out of manual low. All the shift valves get replaced, the solenoid pressure regulator valve, the manual valve, etc. All of this is done in an attempt to prevent it from shifting out of manual low and a few things like that. They are trying to take the control away from the EEC and put it in the trans. If you want to do this, buy a manual valvebody and be done with it.

Here's the problem.

TransGo doesn't realize there are things called production tolerances and stack ups. About one in every 20 TransGo kits won't shift. I have talked to some people on this board that have had this problem. Why doesn't it shift? They cannot account for all the variances in the valve body when trying to do something mechanically that should be done electronically. This is bad, very, very bad. A 5% failure rate is out of control. How lucky do you feel?

Next issue with TransGo. They put a TV pressure blow off valve in the valve body right under the main regulator valve in the cover plate on the bottom of the trans. They claim this is to prevent TV pressure spikes which occur in the trans. I bet I have personally done the post morteums on 500 trans's and looked over a few thousand others. I have taken more pressure data than can be imagined. Guess what? I have NEVER seen an excessive TV pressure spike, ever. The main reason I think they did this is because again, they are trying to change something that should be changed electronically. They change the main regulator valve spring to have a "flatter" line pressure curve based on TV pressure. The problem with changing that spring, you make so much line pressure that you will explode the clutch cylinders. So they add this blow off valve to keep TV pressure to some set limit. Two issues here. One, this should be done electronically by asking for more pressure (there are reasons why this is bad, but I'll get to that later) and not trying to override the electronics. Two, if you ever take the pan off of a trans, even one that functions well, you'll see friction material in the pan, totally normal. What happens when one of these little pieces of material lodge in the blow off valve and have it bleeding off because it doesn't seat? I can answer that, you get your trans rebuilt.

While this may be enough to convince you, I'll give you one more.

Anyone out there with a transgo kit notice that when you are in 1st gear and mash it, about half way through low gear the car seems to really take off (this would be mainly on blower cars, not N/A cars), almost like a turbo kicking in? Ever wonder what this is? It's the freaking trans slipping from the shift kit.

There is a circuit in the valve body to feed the torque converter. Under certain conditions, high pressure demand, lower RPM (<3000) the production valve body will reduce the flow to the converter circuit to keep pressure to the clutches. TransGo gets rid of this nice feature. So you feed the converter circuit full bore all the time. While this is great if you have enough pump flow, but you don't until you really get the pump spinning. So what happens? The line pressure, hence the pressure to the clutches, drops and is not what it should be. In fact, in many cases it drops enough to make the forward clutch slip.

Do you know nothing in the valve body causes shudder? It's a breakdown of the oil/friction interface in the converter causing a stick/slip condition? How do you fix this in the valve body? You rape the converter clutch circuit to slam it on. That way when shudder does happen the friction is so fried you need a new friction disc. You can lock the converter faster electronically. Change your trans fluid ever 21k like you should and you'll never have shudder.

Still want a TransGo? If you think PI knows more than I do then go ahead and get one. I didn't see any of them sitting next to me in the early 90's when we were designing this."

[bolsen]

Awesome post, brother. Should be a sticky.

[SC Cheesehead]

Awesome post, brother. Should be a sticky.

^^^^^^ What he said! ^^^^^ :up:

[Haggis]

Bob is the man. Thanks for the post Bob.

[burt ragio]

Wow great post. I vaguely remember reading this years ago when some of the 1st trans mods were happening on with our cars.

[sailsmen]

A highly respected Tuner recs a Baumann Shift Kit for MM.

I have never had one and have no plans on getting one. I have 545RWHP, 60 Passes and 60K miles on the same trans.
Before that I had 95K of which 50K were 450RWHP and over 190 passes on the same trans.

[bosscj72]

Well the transmission is going in today. Should be done tomorrow.

Thanks No Transgo for any Ford from now on. J-Mod will be installed by ME after the 3 year warrantee runs out.

Darn c-4 of the 21st century will be treated like a girl you want to keep. Not beat the snot out of it like my C-6 cars.

More after the rebuild and my hopeful drive home!

Dave

[justbob]

The Jmod is a GOOD thing for the trans. Three years of driving Miss Daisy? Oh hell no.

Good luck.

Sent from my Ally using Tapatalk 2

[bosscj72]

Well they got a trans......it was a wrong one! It had no electronic speedo hook up so it was NOT a Marauder trans!!!

Now they will find another one today (highly unlikely!) and they did tear mine down. The Intermediate shaft snapped!

Wish I could rush a 300M here today!

More updates later. What a great trip!!! :censor::mad2::mad2::mad2:

[Haggis]

Well they got a trans......it was a wrong one! It had no electronic speedo hook up so it was NOT a Marauder trans!!!

Now they will find another one today (highly unlikely!) and they did tear mine down. The Intermediate shaft snapped!

Wish I could rush a 300M here today!

More updates later. What a great trip!!! :censor::mad2::mad2::mad2:

Where are you staying in Hagerstown?

[bosscj72]

We stayed at the Microtel Inn off exit 9.

The dealership got 2nd trans on Friday around 12 PM and we were on the road at 3:45 PM. Got back to Hotlanta Saturday at 2:30 AM!

"Slip shift" is the key now! It isn't that bad but very smooth not like I prefer! Turning off overdrive is going to be pain to remember. But the pain of this trip should overide my memory!

I plan to visit Marty within the month and have this car dialed in.

Oh well, hope this one lasts...longer than 5,000-7,000 miles!

Feels good to be home! :burnout:

[CWright]

Just read the thread. Sorry to hear of your problems bud but glad you made it back!

[Haggis]

We stayed at the Microtel Inn off exit 9.

The dealership got 2nd trans on Friday around 12 PM and we were on the road at 3:45 PM. Got back to Hotlanta Saturday at 2:30 AM!

"Slip shift" is the key now! It isn't that bad but very smooth not like I prefer! Turning off overdrive is going to be pain to remember. But the pain of this trip should overide my memory!

I plan to visit Marty within the month and have this car dialed in.

Oh well, hope this one lasts...longer than 5,000-7,000 miles!

Feels good to be home! :burnout:

Glad to hear you made it home safe.