Tranny problems on a 1996
 

My buddy has a 1996 4.6L with an auto. The transmission will not shift into 3rd at all. It runs through first and second and then tries to hit 3rd, but ends up getting stuck in between gears or something. The engine just begins to rev freely and he has to manually put it back into second. Any ideas?

Just happened to me a few months back and guess what you need, REBUILD cause you have shattered gear pieces in there I forgot the right expression of whats shattered but mine needed a rebuild at about 74,100.

He figured that whatever happened was probably pretty major. Thanks for the reply. I'll let him know.

Could also be, quite possibly a bent shift fork. My Friends and I a few weeks ago took out, rebuilt, and put back in a T-45 that had the same symptoms..but after a week of driving, his just croaked flat out.

Broke Shift Fork was the culprit. So, its a possibility on yours.

We had out, rebuilt and in, and the car back on the road within 8 hours.

Two possibilites I can see from reading Jerry W's thesis:

Itermediate One Way Clutch
Symtoms: No 1-2 shift or no 3rd and 4th gear. A failing one way clutch will cause a late 1-2 shift that finishes with a big bang, or will allow the engine to run into the rev limiter at WOT.
What Models?: All AODE and 4R70W's built before 1998
Problem: This design one way clutch is not suited for this environment.
Solution: Install the mechanical diode one way clutch. This part is almost bullet proof.

OR

No 3rd or 4th gear
Problem: The direct clutch is burnt up. This could have been cause by a bad intermediate one-way clutch, or could have just burned up.
Solution: Rebuild

Have your friend read this info - It will help him diagnose problems, or can help him rebuild that trans with the right parts: Ford OD Transmissions 101 - Jerry's mod

Merc - The tranny is an auto. If it were a T-45 I wouldn't hesitate as much to pull it out, but I wouldn't want the first time I pull an auto tranny out to be on someone else's car. I may never get it put back together :D


91LX2Bfast - Thanks for the info and the link! I am going to run this info down to him now.

Opps...now I feel like a total idiot...Yeah, might take you a while (Like infinity) to find a shift fork then. Opps again. *Blush*

lol, no problem. I kind of hid the fact that it was an auto in my original post. I am sure it was easy to overlook.