my brothers 95 f-150 has gone through 2 transmissions in 170,000 miles. now it sounds good but it happened both times without warning. towing a trailer, bam nothing, she starts screaming and loses all gears but reverse. i do know trucks somewhat but trannies are out of my league. is this normally how they go? is it good or bad to be on the 3rd trans in that many miles?

 

nobody has had problems with their transmission?

 

it seams weird they go all of a sudden does keep it out of over drive

 

Does he service the transmissions? 85K on a tranny that is towing and not serviced may be about right. Just depends on how much towing, time and weight. And if left in OD like yamahawarriormods questions, that would definitely shorten its life.

 

he does use overdrive occassionally. i told him not to, but he did it anyways. the first transmission was under alot of weight because the bed was full of tools. the second tranny was towing a work trailer everyday(single axel, enclosed 10'). how often do you have to service the trans(fluid change?)? how does overdrive affect the trans anyways? thanks for all the info! it will be put to good use.

 

Overdrive puts a lot of stress on the tranny. As you're working it harder, the torque converter will usually unlock and an unlocked TC produces TONS of heat. Once you heat the fluid up (it's toast at 250F) it breaks down and doesn't work correctly anymore.

I was lucky with a tranny failure on a '91 GMC Sonoma (700R4). Only the OD clutches were toast. I was still able to drive it to my destination (wasn't going to stop a weekend of riding!) and return. I was maybe 70 miles into a 165 mile drive. Returned w/o OD. It was loud and OPEC loved me.

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Exactly what BRW said about OD and heat. I service auto trannys every year. That is 7K miles on my 4X4 and 33K miles on my minivan commuter special. The 88 4X4 has 101K on it and the 96 lumina minivan has 215K miles on it. Both on stock trannies. The wifes STS gets a tranny service every 2 years, approx every 12K. Once the tranny fluid over heats it is junk and the wear starts happening.

 

thanks guys for all of the help, i appreciate it!!![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

While you're at it, throw in a tranny cooler if you don't have one.