I own a 2001 Ford E-250, 5.4L engine. (don't know what type of tranny).
My Problem is my tranny slips when climbing a hill. mostly at about 70km/h to 100km/h (40-60mph) when I try to hold the speed of the vehicle steady on the hill is when it happens. If I accelerate it will stop and gain speed. On straight grades there is no slippage when accelerating or slowing.
I did a very bad thing before I noticed this problem and I am Embarassed about it. After leaving a rest area I noticed that the van was clicking like the timeing was off a bit. i drove like that for about ten minutes at about 90 km/h (55 mph) before I realized that stupid me put the shiffter in 2nd gear and not drive when I pulled out from the rest area. Did I mess up my tranny? does this mean a rebuild? with my luck a rebuild will be nessasry.
Any how any comments would be helpful. Thanks
Mattlock.

 

Welcome to the site..

Trans is a 4R100,, have you checked the fluid level and condition? Does the trans slip if the OD is canceled? Any OD light flashing? Whats the mileage on the van/trans?

 

The milage is 257 000kms (160 000 miles) there is no light on i.e. the shifter OD "off". The level of the fluid is correct. Not sure how the condition is. What does burnt tanny fluid smell like anyways? The color is pink and healthy looking, but I am no mechanic. I bought this van second hand. It appears to me that the tranny mainly slips in the last gear and ONLY climbing hills (like when there is force on the drivetrain). If I let the van slowly decline it's speed (holding the gas pedal in place but not trying to maintain my speed) there isn't any slippage but as soon as I try to maintain a set speed it starts to slip. If I press the gas pedal down enough to have the tranny drop a gear the slippage stops also.
I have tried it with the OD off but can't remember if it still slipped. will try tonight on the highway. I am pretty sure I did something to the transmission. I was tired and wasn't paying attention.
I fear bringing it to a transmission shop. You never know if you are being taken for a ride. It always appears that the only answer they have is "Ya you need to have it rebuilt". I understand that a rebuild will most certainly fix my problem and any other up and coming problems, but damn it is pricey.
Thanks for your feed back!

 

O.K. I went for a 400 mile drive last night and I checked to see about the overdrive "OFF" and the tranny only went into second gear and that was it.
I then checked the gear changes carefully with the tansmission in the overdrive "ON" engaged. At first I only counted 2 gear changes leaving me in third gear. this morning I could barely feel it drop into the forth gear, but I can't say I felt the overdrive kick in. It is hard to be sure without a RPM gauge.

 

GOOD NEWS!!!
It turns out that my tranny is good to go. The tech put some conditioner in the transmission. I asked him if I should change the fluild and he said "By all means NO!" "the fluid has been in there for too long now and if you do a change the detergent in the new fluid will clean off any build up on the seals and could cause slippage".
He said it feels like I might have a bad sparkplug or something, and I should go to my garage. I have an appointment for monday at 10 am. will let you know what comes of this next week. thanks for your comments.

 

beware of trans conditioners in a (well) used transmission; sometimes, they can have a 'boomerang' effect of curing the original problem, and creating other more permanent ones (slippage, harsh shifts, etc)

 

The conditioner wasn't to cure the problem since the problem doesn't appear to be with the transmission. I do hope it doesn't cause a problem.
I still have to wait till monday to have my garage look at the van.

 

O.K. for anyone following this thread here is the update.:
Got the van back this afternoon from the garage. He told me that I will have to bring it to ford and have them take it for a test drive with the computer on it to find the problem. The Mechanic thinks it may be a bad coil on one of the plugs (but which one?). since it can get quite pricey to change all eight coils it would be in my best interest to bring it in to ford and have them put it on their PC to pin point the exact cylinder(s). Will keep you all updated.

 

Well, the nice thing is it should take exactly 5 minutes to diag. All you need to do is bring up Mode 6 data or if you're sporting, take it for a quick spin w/power balance. It shouldn't be a problem.

 

Well since I don't have a "Auto PC" I have to wait till july 06 to take it in for the tech at the Ford dealer to run it with their computer hooked up to it. will let you all know how it goes. I hope it won't be a pricey fix...