I have just purchased a 1992 f-150 4x4 with 216000 miles on it. The transmission has a hard 2-3 shift and i would really like to drop the pan, change the filter and fluid with maxlife atf but im getting mixed reactions from people, some say do it and others say very bad idea. personally i dont see how it would be bad, but thats just me. Any opinions?
Atf fluid change myth?
- Thread starter TexasTornado
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Go ahead and do it.
If that vehicle shouldn't have it's tranny fluid changed, which one does?
Maybe a drain plug installation in the pan would be a good idea when the pan is off.
If that vehicle shouldn't have it's tranny fluid changed, which one does?
Maybe a drain plug installation in the pan would be a good idea when the pan is off.
Definitely drop the pan, change the filter and refill. Don't flush a transmission with that many miles. You'll have to gauge the condition of the fluid after you service it. If you don't install a drain plug in the pan you may want to repeat the pan drop service in 10-15K or buy a cheap hand pump to extract fluid from the pan through the dipstick and refill to get more new fluid in the unit over time.
With 216K on the tranny don't blame yourself (or the fluid and filter) if the service doesn't fix your 2-3 shift problem. Given its age and mileage anything could happen at any time, simply changing the filter and freshening up the fluid is not going to cause the unit to break.
With 216K on the tranny don't blame yourself (or the fluid and filter) if the service doesn't fix your 2-3 shift problem. Given its age and mileage anything could happen at any time, simply changing the filter and freshening up the fluid is not going to cause the unit to break.
Just because the vehicle has over 200K miles does not mean no one has ever changed the ATF. I'd say you need to drop the pan, examine the condition of the filter and pan, then replace the filter and clean the pan and refill with fresh ATF. If things looked really bad as far as a dirty filter goes and the fluid, then you may need to change the filter again in a few weeks as fresh ATF will tend to loosen up old crud some of which will be caught by the filter. An inline filter would also be a good idea. You need to gauge how quickly the new ATF turns color. The only problem people have with high mileage really dirty ATs is that things were so bad that new fluid loosens up crud and clogs the new filter and starts to restrict flow.
If you have the E40D auto tranny, it was problematic until 95. To get a more complete drain, you can also drain the torque converter. There is a hole in the bottom of the bellhousing and you can rotate the converter and undue the plug...it holds about 4 quarts. The whole thing holds like 20 quarts of tranny fluid.
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