Having spent a solid 4.5 hours yesterday replacing the radiator in my wife's Toyota/Scion, you telling me the Ford took 8 minutes is making me rethink my life choices 😉
Anyone remember replacing a radiator in 45 mins. 1. Remove upper/lower radiator hoses. 2. Remove two trans cooler lines. 3. Remove heater return hose. 4. Fan shroud 5. Two metal hold down brackets. 6. Pull and install new one and done. 45 mims.
@@johnclamshellsp1969 I could swap a timing belt in 45 minutes on my old Ranger. 2.3 manual without A/C. Base model v8 pickups and vans are still not bad.
Have been a Shade Tree Mechanic all my life. It's fun to watch a Pro work, and it humbles me to see how much you know and all the tricks you've learned along the way.. I really enjoy this channel Wes, and having grown up in Illinois in the corn belt I appreciate those time outs to watch a harvest in progress. You do a very nice job and you keep an old man entertained. Thank you.
UK. As soon as I read 'old man' I thought kindred spirit. Vehicle in the shop and design all my working life. No regrets - except when it had to end. Regards.
@@jp-um2fr I'm with you my friend. Just turned 79 and I still try to do the routine maintenance like oil and grease and maybe a headlight, but this old machine gets tired in about an hour or two.
He’s good no doubt but I’m more impressed by us shadetree mechanics that do some of the exact same jobs he does but we don’t have the fancy tools. We improvise with what we got. But I pretty much always learn something from Wes. He’s straight up good.
@@Robrt32 Yep. It always helps to start out with a Dad that has a shop and a lot of know how, but I'm still amazed by some of the hopeless causes he tackles. My dad wasn't interested in mechanics, so I did all the hard way. Wouldn't trade a minute of it though.
Your transmission guy is one of the good ones. I was thinking, "What about the transmission cooler circuit?" But he was on top of it. You'd be surprised how many guys forget something simple like that.
Anything to do with auto transmissions is still all black magic to me. I sort of get it... almost. But I still don't 100% understand them and probably never will. Anyone that works on them is up there with brain surgeons as far I'm concerned.
Great video , Wes ! I really like how your transmission guy told you to take out the radiator so he can flush the trans cooler , I know alot of people that have had their transmissions fixed or replaced and nobody ever flushed out the cooler and ended up with another burnt up transmission due to that . It's really cool to hear people actually care enough to make sure a customer gets the job done right the first time.
Id like to add to that statement of keeping the customer happy the first time and say that not only is that true but it goes even deeper than that. He is doing this not only to make them happy but to KEEP them happy. Meaning they won't have a comeback they have to fix and eat the cost of the repair for free due to a half done job. Do it the first time so there won't be a next time!
That transmission had never been serviced before. The yellow plastic plug in the pan is the assembly line dust cap. When the dipstick is installed on the assembly line, the plug gets pushed into the pan. It is to be discarded at the first filter change.
I had the exact same issue 110,502 miles, P0731 and symptoms, only fwd in 2nd and rev, slight whine.Pulled the pan and the fluid was dark and slightly burned. found large metal pieces in the pan, likely from a clutch drum. Bought a trans from a wrecked truck with 25k on the clock. Slapped it in over a single weekend and it works great. 14qts of fluid, wrecker trans, , flush cooler and lines, 12 hrs labor to R&R and 500 curse words trying to get the wiring harness at the back of the engine out of the way and the top bell housing bolt in. Total less than $1000. All done and works great.
I learned my lesson incorrectly installing a torque converter years ago. Took the trans out to replace the front pump seal in the trans, well I didn’t fully install the torque converter back in and then when I lined it back up with the engine it wouldn’t seat properly so I pulled the trans into the engine using the bell housing bolts, needless to say doing that cracked the trans pump, didn’t know until I went to start the car and it was dumping fluid out of the bell housing, had to pull it back out and replace the front pump. Definitely learned my lesson that day lol
Another Great Video, Wes. I wonder if that was a rare failure or something that the transmission shop sees on a regular basis? When they install upgraded parts or updates, I wonder. It seems like newer transmission problems are more electronic issues than mechanical issues. Thanks for making the point about the Torque Converter installation and flushing all the cooler lines. Really Appreciate your attention to detail and commentary. 👍🏻👍🏻
In the past I had taken a plumbing night coarse. The best lesson was when to hand off the problem to an expert. Good call. It is frustrating when engineers design vehicles that do not allow for easy maintenance / repair. I guess its the price of progress. Great video as always.
Figure that a lot of the testing phase gearboxes (like pre-production stuff) have exterior accessible solenoids and most of the non critical stuff is operable from the outside. :) don't you just love that kind of shit?
I hear you, Wes. If any of my own transmission work goes beyond the valve body assembly, solenoids, conductor plate, etc, that's where I draw the line.
4R70W or 4R75E (W) are some of the easiest 4 speeds to rebuild and understand. (Same for GM 4L60E and 80E) Wes, you would not be in over your head to tackle it. Also, if anyone else drives one of these, I highly recommend the J mod. It's cheap to do and really improves the slushiness of these with their soft factory calibrations. Ford did a lot of the changes involved towards the end of production of them.
I have one and can't tell for sure if it's had a jmod or not. At light throttle I wouldn't say it shifts hard, but it seems to shift quicker than most panthers. But if I mat it, it'll bark the tires on the 1-2 shift.
Dave, the problem for many of us small shops is not the lack of knowledge or the ability to understand transmissions, it's not being able to justify to the cost of the tools and equipment to service them. As a "general repair shop" we might see two to three transmission rebuilds a year. Not worth the space and money to set up for that.
@@humbleservices6418 Exactly. I got into transmissions as an interesting hobby. The worst thing about transmissions is 1 little screwup and its coming back out again and apart. Not worth the hassle for a small shop.
Back in the 80's I had a '72 Ford Gran Torino Sport that had a C6 automatic transmission. In a moment of haste, while still moving forward, I jammed the transmission into "park". It produced a fairly loud "bang" and the car immediately stopped. I was worried that I had damaged the transmission, yet after that incident, the transmission continued to function with no problems. A testament to the durability and construction quality of those old C6 trannys.
Down here in the Deep South, I’m in the bottom right corner of Alabama. The cotton field across the street was recently sprayed with exfoliant, apparently they kill the leaves before harvesting the bolls, And the peanuts beside me haven’t been turned over yet. I’m debating sneaking over there after they turn them and grabbing a 5 gallon bucket of fresh peanuts and boiling them. Great vid love your no nonsense commentary.
Being a transmission tech for years I gave up fancy holders for the Jack and just welded a 4 x 8 plate with slots for the mount bolt to the Jacks platform and I would bolt the transmissions right to the trany jack. Much safer and tilting the platform can be done with zero sketchyness.
Always good to watch . I was sure taken back when you felt $2000 was "not to bad" . Man I cant get used to repair prices . I applaud you for knowing your limits.
Thanks Wes! I've learned so much from you, so here goes. Dearth, noun, a scarcity or lack of something. i.e. "there is a dearth of broken Fords lately" (yeah right). Thanks for the videos!
Wes’s, I had a 2001 Ford Ranger XLT 4x4 with factory tow package ( extra trans. oil cooler ) automatic. At 126,000miles a s 17 years old the trans gave up. The cause was internal oil cooler inside radiator leaked putting antifreeze into the trans oil. Rebuild trans and a new radiator along with trans shop labor removing ,installation and rebuilding of trans cost me 2300 dollars US. Just letting you know owners that your radiator can cause your trans to go. Replace it every 50,000 miles to be safe. Plastic junk.
Wes, There is no voodoo magic going on inside an automatic trans. Take it apart, clean, install new frictions, steels, bushings, seals, orings, apply pistons, and any broken hard parts...charge $2k...easy peasy. You're a far more advanced mechanic than I am and I've rebuilt 4 automatic trans with no problem. IMO it's harder to R&R a transmission than it is to rebuild them.
I've seen several issues with those AODE/4R70W transmissions. Rear planetary exploded, snap ring coming off and rear sprag coming apart. It's the nature of the beast. Thanks Wes!
During my summer vacation, my Odyssey, with 130,000 quit moving. It made a grinding noise. The local Honda dealer diagnosed it as a bad tranny, covered under extended warranty. I drive it 800 miles home after replacement, when it failed again. Turned out to actually be a front axle, and not the tranny. The new tranny engaged the worn splines on the driveshaft enough to get me home.
I was almost fully recovered from rebuilding my 68rfe transmission myself. Watching this brought back some bad memories. Had to make another appointment with my therapist.
Those propshaft nut extensions are fantastic, didn't realise they made swivel ones tho. Especially when you've got 9/16 head nuts on an otherwise metric vehicle (thanks Landrover). Thanks for another entertaining video
@@dmitryhwguy1646 eh? I'm complaining about have AF fasteners on a metric vehicle. Something the manufacturer did from the factory and is a complete pain if you didn't realise before hand.
I read a bunch of comments and agree 100%.People need to find a good honest mechanic, to get the job done right the first timeand not paying for work that didn't need to be done. I love the channel , I always learn/ takeaway something from your videos. Keep up the great work.
Another fun adventure! Also, I had to go back to the start of the video when you had your head turned to make sure your hat said "DieHard". In the outro it looked to me like it may have been a parody "pieHard " hat, lol!
So far, an awesome Sunday. First off a Mustie1 vid popped up then a Watch Wes Work. Wes is always fascinating with the way he figures out WTF is wrong and he admits his limitations. Who's next I wonder.
This brought back memories, I was a tow truck fleet mechanic for 16 years back in the 70s and 80s. I pulled many transmissions then but they were manual. I feel the pain the struggle is real.
that made me have flashbacks of changing the a4ld trans in my 90' mustang. didn't have all the fancy tools. did it on 4 jackstands in my driveway, by myself. i never have been a very strong guy, didn't have another person to help, and didn't have a transmission jack so getting that other trans mounted to the engine was a challenge! plenty of "OH CRAP!" moments when i thought that heavy sucker was gonna fall on me. used floor jacks, a little cart on rollers thing, and the cross member for leverage and a chiltons manual. i only hoped my mother could hear me scream from inside the house and come help me if something fell on me. oh, and i used a craftsman pear headed 3/8" ratchet with a breaker bar(it was a tough ratchet) on the driveshaft bolts. no fancy impact drivers. rough times man! lol.
Sounds like he maybe welded his clutches together, there used to be a guy named Richard in Texas , had a RU-vid channel his boy took over… he’d teach you all about em…transmissions I mean!! Dude was a genius, and I miss watching him!!!
I'm new here just found your channel and I've really enjoyed watching it I'm a Retired heavy equipment mechanic and I like the way you do the job yeah I watched you put that clutch in that little tractor and those two splins can make a preacher cuss patience is the key to mechanic work I'm old school back before technology and I'm in Georgia don't have to worry about so much rust.
Having a really good trans guy that you can actually trust is a lifesaver. They're usually flakey as painters or body guys or cut corners wherever they can. Glad you have a good one and thats good for your customers as well. Be interested to have gotten back the bad parts from the trans guy to see the carnage. Thanks Wes!!!
A great way to start my Sunday with new video from Wes. I’m surprised that transmission needed to be rebuilt at that mileage. I’ve got a 2001 F-150 with the 4R70W that’s got 190,000 miles on the original transmission.
It's all in how they take care of them also that 107k miles could of been 107k of stop and go and towing. Also, not all transmissions are created equal one thing that was not perfect from the factory will torpedo a tranny eventually. I have 186k On my Ford Expedition (Same Transmission as this F-150) and it needs a Transmission. But It has spent its life in Stop and go and towing the fam toys and camper around so I feel I got my money's worth out of it.
Evening Wes. When I use to swap out transmission when I was a tad pole. My transmission guy told me to always flush my oil cooler lines. I bought 3 cans of KOOLER CLEAN. Flushed it towards and backwards until clean cleaner came out. Add 1 qt to the converter. Seated the converter and started the install. All of this on a concrete driveway. Truck jacked up and with jack stands. I got pretty good at this and made some extra $$. I never rebuilt the customer stuff. I didn't have the tools. After I learned more about rebuilds I did a few. Learned alot. I'm about to drop my trans on my 03 Chevy after 365k miles. I'm crossing my fingers and hope it's only a minor issue that I can fix. I'm suspected a broken servo spring or piston. Anyhow. Thank you Wes. Brought back memories.
Brings back memories of my buddy with his Chevy truck, turbo 350. It went south, so he took the transmission out, took it to a guy who was recommended to him. Friend said "this guy had forgotten more about how to rebuild a transmission than most guys know " . Well, that was true, as it had to go back 3 times before it worked right. 😖
That's my rational as well: "No clouds in the sky...can't work." Then again, the reverse is true as well: "If it's raining, we don't work in the rain." Now that I'm retired, I can put those rules into effect. I was impressed with how clean the bottom of that truck was after 100 K miles. Great video Wes thumbs up.
Underneath is incredibly rust free for a rust belt truck of that age. By the way, I'll put our rust here in Connecticut against yours in Illinois any day. Really enjoy your videos. You're the best diagnostician I've ever seen particularly with electronics. Sure wish you were around here instead of the "replace parts until it's fixed" thieves we have.
I always tell ppl to maintain their vehicle and it can last for quite a few years. This truck is a great example. Instead of scrapping this unit as most would do at this point, fix it and keep it running til until something catastrophic kills it. A lot of ppl think they have to keep replacing their epvehicles every few years when you really don’t. $2000.00ish is good money spent to get more years out of this truck instead of spending $50k-60k on a new unit.
The answer is always three, just ask the Owl.... :) I looked at the title in the thumbnail and laughed as this means something so totally different today than it did 20 years ago. You are to self disparaging my brother. You have the knack man, that allows you to diagnose, repair and make right a plethora of mechanical contrivances, you are actually one of the better mechanics I have had the privilege to watch in my career. Kicking the tripod aside you make great videos and I appreciate the time in conceptualization, editing and ULing that these take... thanks man for the ride along.
the 4R70W seems to be a good transmission in my opinion, I had one go through 2 engines and it lasted 394K in a 1999 expedition, I can't say the same about our current 2004 expedition, we had that one rebuilt at 240k which is still not bad
Wes, if you can take apart an old Oliver dozer transmission and shim it back together so it works, you can certainly tackle a modern auto transmission like the one for this Ford. There are plenty of YT vids of people taking them apart in under 30 minutes. Of course that's the easy part. Re-assembly takes a bit longer and some special tools. You can do it. Set up a stainless steel table/benchtop in your shop. Then take an auto trans apart, fix it, and put it back together. You'll be glad you did. Also, how is it this 15 yr old Ford with 107k mi has less rust than your lift? Great video as always. Have a great week!
Fun to hear your weather report. Snow is so close up here. Good to hear farming report. Good note was most common carry out transmission failure was Pump failure.
Excellent again, Wes. I am certain and I think I must bring to your attention, that the Goldwing you see every single day for several hours for the last two months has a flat tyre you haven't noticed...
Decades ago in my garage I had the same delima about the transmission work, and the customer. Normally I just sent the car over to my friends transmission service. He was swamped and said If I pulled the transmission, lines and cooler he wauld walk me thru the rebuild. fortunately it was just an old GM 2 speed slush a matic, and simple as simon. All turned out good.
These old fords radiators and Transmissions are pretty easy to remove good design to bad Ford changed the design on the newer models good video as always @Watch Wes Work
Your EZACTLY like me, I ONLY replace engines and transmissions, ONLY ON rear wheel drive CARS/TRUCKS. FRONT wheel drives CARS are A pain, AND I WILL NOT WORK ON THEM. AND NO I DO NOT WORK INSIDE ENGINES NOR TRANSMISSIONS, I ONLY REPLACE CLUTCHES, PRESSURE PLATES, AND THROW OUT BEARINGS, AND MASTER SLAVE HYDRAULIC CYLINDERS, AND MASTER CYLINDERS ON THESE TYPE OF APERRATUS ASSEMBLIES, OR INSTALL NEW FRONT AND REAR PUMPS SEALS, ONLY IF IT LEAKS, EXCELLENT JOB YOUNG MAN. 😁👍
You should try an automatic transmission. Maybe an older, non-electronic one. They're no more complex than the hydro valve setups on the plow trucks or that Ranger transmission. I rebuilt a C6. It worked, It was a formative experience.
Yeah, but Wes isn't setup to repair them and there's an entire chain of order that needs to be built from scratch. IMO he's peachy where he's at, there's no reason to spread oneself to so many corners.
We installed an accessory external filter, and an additional cooler, because transmissions are so darned expensive. I did the r&r and filter, cooler modification. My builder recommended it. Did your builder tell you why it grenaded? A friends 4R70 did the same thing. Nice to see you got it done on a non crusty ride. thank you.
You're a braver man than some of the mechanics I've dealt with in my lifetime. All the symptoms you had today remind me of something with my old Toyota Land Cruiser. Took her to several mechanics, and they were all sure they couldn't find the problem, and that something would have to "break" before they could properly diagnose. Finally had to say goodbye to her, because I couldn't trust her to do the km's I was doing at the time, and the last thing I needed was to break down in the middle of nowhere. Wish I had taken her to a transmission shop. I think you stole the thunder of most viewers when you mentioned not having to take to it with a gas axe - for the miles, she was in pretty good condition underneath.
Love learning what you work on...I am a bee person...we have a Dearth during Aug/Sept when there is little pollen and nectar for bees to work ......in others words not anything around....you da man Wess
After watching this it shows me what a good transmission shop will do to help you ie bring the radiator so they can flush those lines removing any nasty junk trapped in there. That alone should prolong the life of the rebuilt transmission. I would not have thought of doing that---- but then again I am not a mechanic. That transmission jack looked a little skeptical to me. I was worried it might fall over sideways. Thank goodness it did not. Thanks for the videos and tips.
i wish to see more of these - automatics remain a mystery to me, and I appreciate that you tap out on these quickly, too! :) Great video, keep em coming!
This job must of made you feel good. A nice straight forward job. I wish cars were still made this way! Hope you are feeling better. They are picking beans here in Sandwich land. Thanks for the video. Have a great weekend!
Great diagnosis and refit, good call on flushing transmission cooler by your transmission specialist 👍. Definitely a black art in any vehicle gearbox to me each to his or her own. Great job and photography Wes, thanks for sharing
Good trans shop to suggest flushing the cooler. I rode in the 40s to even the 30s in Illinois if the sun was out. Still riding the Panhead bobber at age 72 but now in the mountains by Prescott.
Hey I enjoyed watching your video, I wrench on all my vehicles and motorcycles and boats.Knowing how some Jobs go you are a true good mechanic and if it ever came to a point where I couldn't do it anymore I would not hesitate to bring it to u.
