Hey guys, had to trailer home my beater today. Lost all gears till I got home... all of a sudden I had (reverse) and (drive) to get it off the trailer. Then lost gears again soon as I took it down the street real quick. Almost acts like I’m low on fluid. Has anyone out there ever experience this? Also... shutters, feels like a trans lock till you get it going. Fluid is full, red in color, and not burned. But does have small black dots in it... looks like pepper kinda. I’m thinking it’s the torque converter from reading online. It’s a Ford C6/390. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
Ford cars or trucks that aren't driven a lot, the trans pump seal gets hard, and lets the fluid leak past the converter Only way to fix is a rebuild.
Since you said "Trailer it Home" I assume you had just driven it a fair distance as in Normal then while moving you lost forward motion. Drain the pan into something clean and drop the pan and check the sediment in the pan. Clean that all out and Change the filter and refill with the Old fluid. If it isn't terminal you'll get some more miles out of it but not a lot. Find a good shop. If you haven't had any issues till now it's just a ware issue that finally plugged the filter enough to loose fluid feed and pressure. The Wizzard
The low/reverse clutch is used in low and reverse engagement. I would figure something in the clutch or valve body circuit is to blame. Very simple trans and very reliable. Loved working on them.
Had the selector arm jump of the valve body once....park pawl was stuck with load against it..you will have to drop the pan off to fix it..
Id almost say that if you had the wrong dipstick in there, it could be a quart low and it would act this way. But I almost think there is a check ball in the valvebody thats hung with some junk maybe, give it a fresh filter to make sure its getting pressure and fluid running well through it. c6 is a hard trans to kill unless its ran low on fluid or overheated. I do agree the pepper is probably band material. While you got the pan off, check the bands.
Filter was totally clogged with sludge and debris. Wasn’t metal... not sure what it is. Bands looked good from what I could see. Surprisingly look brand new inside. Thinking fluid has never beeen changed since 1971. Cleaned everything and putting a new filter in tomorrow. Hoping for the best.
Hay, what do ya know. The filter was doing it's job. If your going to re use the fluid be sure to put a Paint strainer in the Funnel to pour the fluid through. I'll bet you'll get a few more Miles out of her. The Wizzard
From my experience [used to own a trans shop etc] C6s and C4s do not show a lot of debris in the pan if they die of friction material failure. If you are comfortable dropping the valve body, do it or at least lower it a bit by loosening bolts so that the converter drains a bit. Then when you refill the trans, dump it all in. Let the fluid sit before you start the engine until you get a definite level reading, which should be well above the full mark. THEN start it up and run through the gears and get another dipstick reading. It should be a LOT lower, maybe even off the stick. That tells you the pump is working. When they die they almost never make a noise, giving no clue.
Thanks for the advice. Did just that... pump is working. Shifts good... but still doesn’t feel right. Feels like I’m pulling a trailer or like if I had a wheel locking up. But throw it in neutral And it rolls fine. Could that be the converter?
You may have trash in the valve body, applying pressure to a clutch pack and the band at the same time. You can pull it out, disassemble it and make sure all is well there. Sometimes the seperator plate gasket will blow out causing problems, might get an argument here, but I put mine back together without it.
Trans is good... lack of power ended up being an inner piece of the muffler had rotted and fallen off blocking the exhaust. That’s why it idled fine but lost power driving. Easy fix.
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