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Saga of Tim's Transmission

new 7/31/02


Because several folks have asked I want to clarify a few things about my recent ATX failure.

A little over 2 years ago Don invited my to stay over his house the night before a car show in Peoria. My car had ~ 45k miles on it. To get ready for the car show I used "Simply Green" and a garden hose on my engine. By the time I got 100 miles to Don's house I developed a false neutral in drive position. Simply put the converter would not lock up and both the engine and transmission got hotter than I would like.

I had ESP till 60k but I could not replicate the problem for the local dealerships, and then when I could they all told me to run it until it fails. By 48k it finally puked and in the process gave me lot of problem at the Indy convention. All the dealerships would take my $100 to read codes then tell me "your under warranty - run it until it dies."

It died, I went to Anderson Ford in Clinton IL because they could fit me in with out a long wait. They had a new guy who never worked on a Taurus much less a SHO before, Anderson said he was an expert but fired him after he worked on my car. I don't think he ever did a FWD car before. Somehow Anderson figured it would be more profitable to repair my unit than put in a rebuild. In the end they replaced most every hard part and wear part in the case with new parts and took a major loss.

I wanted a Doug Lewis shift kit but Anderson would not put it in. The mechanic did put in a few internal FPS parts when the transmission was all apart but would not make any mods to the valve body. I had an 18,000 GVW B&M ATF cooler put in at Anderson when they did the ATX repair.

It took 30 days to get my car back from Anderson Ford. It was hell ordering all the special SHO AX4N parts from Ford. When I got my car back the subframe was in crooked which effected alignment and honestly I had very little confidence in the quality of the workmanship.

As soon as I got my car back, the very next day I drove down to FPS in Atlanta. Doug did a 50k service, corrected the sub frame issue and without removing the transmission looked at the valve bodies and replaced a pump shaft, which was badly worn and missed by Anderson Ford and would have caused another major failure very soon. I emphasize that Doug NEVER did a tear down, but impressed the hell out of me with what he did do with the ATX still in the car.

Before this failure I have been known to drive in a "sporting way" from time to time but not abuse the car. My 144 membership was on my first OE ATX, which made me wonder if ATX life was related to sustained high speeds.

Since the rebuild I have been a good boy, always kept it under 100 mph and never flogged the car. IL changed the law where 40+ over the limit is now criminal and honestly I proved what I wanted to prove and no longer want to pay for broken parts or speeding tickets.

Before this convention I did the Simply Green trick again and drove 750 miles to the convention with out any problems. The first day of the convention all went well except when I drove a carload of folks to Cracker Barrel for lunch. I was making a left-hand turn across traffic so I goosed it to time on coming traffic and the engine spun free up to 4k rpm and "dumped the clutch." Some folks thought it was a converter problem, other folks thought it may be external electrical problem. I borrowed a 3/8" drive ratchet with a 10 mm socket (and I need to know who to return it too) and opened the 40 pin connector under the MAF to dry out. Well it rained all night so at 6:30 am I reconnected the connector and with a cold engine I went to get a tank of high test for summit point and without warning (or abuse) I got a false neutral in drive again. Stopping and restarting the engine solved the problem and I drove back to the hotel.

Thankfully Protech was willing to fit me in on short notice and I drove the 20 miles to Gaithersburg without a problem if only because I conserved momentum, kept my speed down, used <10% throttle and experienced no steep grades. Protech had difficulty getting the car on a lift, pushed the car, dropped the pan and I thought the ATF looked and smelled OK. Little metal was floating in the pan but latter inspection showed the filter was chock full of stuff.

In a perfect world I would want a rebuild with at least a brazed converter, LSD and shift kit. I called FPS and they had nothing in stock to ship. Jasper had $3000 rebuild with a 3/36 warranty - with delivery time estimated in about week.

I could get a Ford rebuild next morning for $2000 with a 2/24 warranty. Any mods (LSD, trick converter, shift kit) would void the Ford warranty. If I waited for Protech to disassemble the transmission, inspect and order parts from Ford that could take a month while I ate at Cracker Barrel every day and lived at the hotel.

I took the "pure" Ford rebuild route. Fourcade Transmission who does the heavy duty ATX work for Protech worked until 10:00 P.M. the last night of the convention to get my job done. They set aside local customers who were ahead of me because I was from out of town and a Protech customer. (insert special thanks again)

I wanted a SHOFAST converter and LSD but because of time issues - in spite of generous offers from Brad and Kirk I just could not arrange it. I asked Doug if he could supply Fourcade Transmission with shift kit info but that would have also voided any warranty and cause more delays even if he were willing.

Turns out that the core-charge on Gen III AX4N Ford rebuild was only $600. I think I changed transmissions before a lot of damage was done and it is worth a lot more than $600 in parts. Not to slight SHOFAST in any way but since Doug worked on it last I shipped my old core to FPS in Atlanta (with Doug's prior permission). Shipping should cost $200 so I have about $800 total in a bad transmission I can't use as it is. My thought is with a simple diagnosis and a few wear parts I could have a good replacement ATX for not too many bucks.

When I do get the bucks I hope to have Doug rebuild my ATX with all the possible goodies. I don't remember if my last rebuild was 12 months or 24 months warranty but in either case at 26 months I am out of coverage. In any case I would not want Anderson Ford to work on anything of mine and they know how I feel about them and they don't much like me either.

I have nothing but good things to say about Fourcade Transmission, Protech, and Doug Lewis; all of whom were very helpful and capable. I mooched rides for 3 days so thanks for all that put up with me. (including Kirk)

And a special thanks to Joseph Van Oss, his son David and the Texas gang who drove me to Fourcade Transmission Friday morning when their plan was to site see in DC, naturally we got lost - I don't know my way around Gaithersburg. I could gripe about missing Summit Point and the drags but you know maybe better my transmission should go at convention than at home away from all the high quality help I got. I knew then, and appreciate even more now that SHO folks are like family, and that is as good as a convention as one can have.

I still have the problem of returning the 3/8" drive ratchet with a 10 mm socket, I am a little deaf (and bad with names) but I think the drivers name is Jason and he has a black Gen 1 or Gen 2. Any help finding the owner and his address would be important to me.

I hope this answers everyone's questions. I have a few things (including 1,100 e-mails) to do when I got back, but I thought I would take the time to answer most of the questions. Did cleaning my engine cause this? I don't know but I will not do it again - ever. Someone asked about the quality of Doug's rebuilds. I have absolute faith in Doug's work. In my case, someone with little skill put one of Doug's kits in. That is way beyond Doug's control.

I wish I could have spent more time with folks at the convention, not sitting in my room calling Fourcade Transmission and Protech 15 times in two days. I needed to do that because - for example - the wheel lock was in my hotel room. Maybe next year.


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