Hey all, need some advice. About 3 yrs ago I bought a 98 f150 4.6l 4x4 xlt from a friend of mine, only had 135000 km at the time, now has only 145000. I don't drive it alot as I have 2 other vehicles. Lately i have noticed some problems with the tranny slipping when i get on the highway, the truck is fine around town, only seems to act up in cold weather or going on the highway, this past weekend i drained the fluid from the pan and torque converter and was about to install a new filter when i noticed there was no magnet in the pan, pan was also considerably clean. (apologies for my grammar) There was no buildup in the pan like you would expect if it had a magnet. If I install a new magnet and replace the fluid and filter, what are the chances of the new magnet pulling some of that crap out of the tranny? I can't really afford to have the tranny rebuilt. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

At this point you have done all that you can do to help the transmission. You might want to put a little bit of Lucas transmission lube in there to prolong the life of the tranny. I wouldn't worry about it much. If it's slipping in OD then just drive it with the OD off.

 

Magnet and Lucas. Lots of prayer. Thats about it.

 

Well the good news is I looked at the old fluid and i don't see any metallic debris or broken parts, gonna pull the valve body and clean it up. I ran my finger across the bottom of the valve body with it in the tranny and my finger was dirty, is it possible i may have something sticking in the valve body?? Other question is what should I use to lubricate the valves when i put the body back together. Is there any special lubricant that should be used. First time on a valve body removal.

 

Transmission oil is all that should go in there. If you think you have debris and varnish you can try Tranx-X additive. Worked nicely on mine after I replaced the nuked torque converter. I bought it at Wal-Mart. Seafoam makes a trans flush, but you don't leave it in. So, you have to put it in and drive on it before you change the fluid. I'm not really fond of that idea.

 

Well I have just successfully rebuilt my first valve body, upon disassembly I found alot of buildup in it and some sticky valves. I flushed out the lines and installed an additional cooler, took it for a quick drive and it seems to shift a little smoother, havn't had it on the highway yet. I added a little bit of lucas oil only a quarter bottle. Had to stir it up with the tranny fluid to thin it out. I let ya know what happens after the highway test. Thanks for the info.

 

you should be adding the whole bottle of lucas. that stuff is amazing and brought my 02 f150 tranny back to life but not adding enough you wont get the same results. me and a friend were out 4x4ing in the mountains and his trans got hot and slipped in every gear(chevy by the way) so we stopped at a small auto parts store about 2 hours from home drained the fluid and added 4 bottles of lucas trans fix and the rest atf. then headed home. not only didnt it slip anymore but he is still driving that chevy and i rode in it the other day and a w.o.t. the trans shifts great!!!

 

Well to be honest I was going to add the whole bottle but I've read alot about people saying it caused their tranny to slip, or it clogged up the filter. Maybe it was because they didn't stir it up with the atf before putting it into the tranny, i don't know. Did you mix it up with atf to thin it out first or no?

 

no but i always try to ad it to a hot trans or warm the lucas fluid. but you dont have to. what i run on all my trucks including my diesel is if the trans takes 7 quarts i do 6 atf and 1 lucas. never had a problem.

 

All this flushing of the valve body and such could cause more problems down the line