Hello all, I don’t know much about cars but I bought an old 2000 2wd 4.6 f150 for work. Long story short replacing the radiator myself I twisted off part of the transmission line going to the radiator during the install so I used a high pressure hose with x2 hose clamps to tie back into the existing line. Couple months went by coming home from work rpms were going higher but I wasn’t going any faster, lost all power then realized the hose clamp came loose and I lost all fluid. Overfilled the fluid without realizing or knowing how to check properly then the truck was only able to hit 15mph soon as it reaches 15mph it slips bad as if I slammed on the brakes hard. Drained some fluid out and now I’m able to hit about 18-20mph before running into the same issue but the dipstick is reading a normal level of fluid. The answer sounds obvious I have to replace the transmission but was curious if there’s an alternative and was curious what went wrong/what was damaged when I lost the fluid. Any help/suggestions would be appreciated thanks for reading.
The only way to find out what happened to the existing transmission is to pull it out of the truck, disassemble it, and do an autopsy. Not worth the effort. Just get a remanufactured transmission from jasper industries.
As Tester’s post implies, you fried your transmission. I doubt there will be a “next time” - but, for future reference in similar situations…
- you needed to fix the transmission cooler attachment properly. Probably with another new radiator.
- whatever the application don’t x2 on the hose clamps.
- always know how to check your fluid levels and ALWAYS check them regularly, but most especially after doing any kind of fluid service.
- ask Q’s before a disaster…
So you broke the transmission cooler line?
Or a fitting on the radiator?
Done properly, the hose repair would have lasted, the reason it came off is because the clamps didn’t have anything to keep them from sliding, normally do a small flare on the end of the hard line and double clamp it at each end with the proper hose and it will work…
That aside, you absolutely killed the transmission, not even worth opening up for the most part, as you probably destroyed most of the non wear parts in there (planets, drums, shafts, sun gears, etc etc), the clutches may have even started to weld themselves together… I will post some pictures, but you probably will not know what you were looking at (no offence) unless I had side by side pictures…
But yes as said already, heat kills automatic transmissions period, and you just kept on kicking that dying horse until it finally fell over dead… lol
The parts below were extremely overheated, fluid was never low, just overheated…
What is left of the overdrive (OD) planet and is seized in the OD ring gear with a few other parts…
And what is left of the sun gear still assembled in the OD hub for safety…
To put it bluntly the more you overheat a trans, the more it will cost to rebuild it, and the longer you overheat a trans, the even more money it will cost for a rebuild…