I have a 1994 Ford F-250 Diesel that is an automatic. When hauling Christmas Trees on a trailer up a steep hill, the transmission overheated and blew out fluid from the spout below the housing unit. Now the overdrive light on the gear shift blinks and fluid runs out of the spout when it is running. It will still shift and everything if there is enough fluid on the transmission. My question is this…Is this transmission ready for a rebuilt or is it the torque converter? I have replaced torque converters on other fords before so I feel confident to do this however I have never rebuilt a transmission. I have to do this repair myself, so I could use some guidance.
thanks
It’s going to take a lot more than “guidance”…Spending a lot of money on guesswork is not a sound approach…
I’ve never rebuilt a transmission either, but I have replaced them. I looked into it before, and even talked to a friend that was learning how to do rebuilds from a master technician. Rebuilding an automatic requires a lot of expensive specialty tools. Unless your going to do a lot of rebuilds, it’s not worth the money for the tools.
Check with some of your parts stores for a remanufactured unit you could just swap in. Bonus, it comes with a warranty in case something goes wrong with it.
If I was desperate I might consider doing it…but it’s NOT something that I’d tackle. There’s too much of a chance to make things worse. Maybe YouTube has a few videos on how to do it.
Could the transmission cooler be clogged?
Although this a really old Ford.
Have you simply considered pulling one from a wrecking yard? This transmission used may be beyond common and Ford trucks have been the #1 or #2 selling vehicle in the last 20 yrs at least.
Does fluid immediately run out of the vent when you start it up, or does it only start to come out after the truck heats up?
I’m thinking that either you overfilled it or the cooler is clogged up, causing overheating. If you plan on keeping the truck anyway, you might get an external cooler and bypass the one in the radiator. If your truck came with one of these, make sure it isn’t clogged and that the fins are clear of debris. You should have an external cooler anyway if you’re going to tow with this. Even if the transmission is gone, an external cooler will help prevent the same thing from happening again after you fix it.
The truck has an external cooler. How does one tell if the cooler is clogged? The fluid leaks from the time the truck has been put into gear. It does not matter if it is hot or cold. I will contact a few junkyards to see what is available.
If it leaks as soon as you put it in gear, it’s either drastically overfilled or there’s a blown internal seal.