westhurmond

1991 Ford F150 lariat XLT with 6 cyl in line. Its a beater, long hard life. Mother bought it for late father, $800, not driven much past 4 years, even less in past 1 year. Bought it from her because she needed the money and intention was to have 15 year old son mess around with it to learn some very BASIC car mechanical stuff, change plugs, oil, brakes, etc and then maybe drive for a while or sell. Drive it about 45 min from her house to mine with one waffle house stop. Pull in drive way and it throws up tranny fluid all down driveway. Is leaking out from the bottom front of the tranny just behind the oil pan, where it appears a seal or gasket might be. Now car won't go into gear, no drive, no reverse. Question 1: what happened? why? old fluid? too hot? too much pressure? bad seal/gasket? Thoughts on repair? Do I just need fluid or tranny rebuild and if so what kind of money am I looking at? Qustion 2: Do I fix it or sell the car as is? I don't need the truck as it is not the greatest. In addition to tranny problem: interior is not great, overdrive button is missing, turn signal won't hold in place on right turns, rear fender is caddy wompous, hood is a little off. AC is not cold (freon? compressor?), 3 of 4 tires are different, spare in use because other has a sidewall hole, did I mention all the rust on the bottom? Also exterior paint isn't going to win any awards. Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

westhurmond

Steve83

It happens on older E4ODs. I've never heard a good explanation why, but it has happened to me. I refilled the fluid & drove a few more days before replacing the front seal, as described in this & the NEXT few captions:


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I recommend only MotorCraft Mercon - other fluids aren't substantially cheaper, and will speed up the transmission's death.


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My 4.9L has ~860Kmi without rebuild, and still runs like-new. They're very robust engines, so with just normal maintenance and good parts/fluids, you can get many more miles out of that truck. Read the captions in this album:


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You should put all the truck's details into your signature so we can find them when we want to answer you. Click this & read the caption:


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westhurmond

She's heading on a flat bed to the local transmission shop for a check up. Hopefully just the seal and we are back up and running.

westhurmond

Mechanic checked it and tranny appears to work fine. No metal in pan. Replaced front and rear seals and put it back in. I drove it around for a day and noticed a clanging sound had developed. Took a peek underneath and the inspection plate was missing from bottom of bell housing and sound was coming from there. Took it back to the mechanic. Waiting to hear from him. Will follow up with details.

westhurmond

They charged $600 to put in new front and rear seals, add fluid, test. I think you have to pull the whole transmission to do this so I expect a fair amount of labor is involved. Does that price sound fair?

He fixed the clanking noise. Can't find my inspection plate. He said his employee told him it came in without one. Luckily I had a before picture. This working out great.

Edgar_88

westhurmond

Well I finally got the truck back and the found the inspection plate. I told them I would install so I wouldn't have to wait more. Took it home and the bolts he sent don't fit. Anybody have any idea what size bolts I could get and where?

Steve83

Junkyard. They're a common size on many Ford vehicles of that era.