a question for the Ford truck guys

Its a 1997 Super Duty, 460ci with a E4OD transmission. The transmission occasionally won't upshift unless i physically put the shifter into 2nd and sometimes won't upshift at all.
Sometimes it will downshift with little load on it or downshift at will regardless of road speed. Transmission does
not slip. No codes. Changed the oil a couple of weeks ago. No chunks on the magnet.


Thank you for your help.

I've 3 '97s all 460 spds, one with a gear venders OD here on the farm. I wouldn't pull my goose with an automatice. Thie site is very good, very knowledgable and helpful, I'd sure post your question there too. Larry
Ford truck site

Not quite the answer you are looking for but a plugged exhaust system will cause problems like those. Most like the the catalytic converter. Another cheaper thing to check is to actually put a fuel pressure gauge on it and test fuel pressure. IIRC Ford had 3 fuel pumps on those. Lift pump in each tank plus a frame mounted pump to actually make full pressure.

Rick

Before you get into it try another fluid change to synthetic and couple of lucas trans fix. A few years back i had a f 150 slipping like mad
and that cured it made me a believer

460s, since 88 used the ECCIV engine management system. 2 high pressure pumps, one in ea tank with the filter on the frame before the engine. 88s and some 89s used the
older system with a low pressure transfer pump in ea tank and high pressure pump on the frame. Larry

There should be a sensor module on the right side of the transmission housing. Look at it and make sure connection is good and its functioning properly.

This is a picture of my brothers 96 taken last week. The truck is a 460 auto with just over 100,000 miles on it. All it's done since he got it new is haul a fifth wheel around. This is the second fifth wheel he's had behind it. All he put into it is: ball joints, tie rods, brakes, tires and lots and lots of gas.

Speed sensor is the first thing that comes to mind however there are a handful of computer inputs that can affect shifting.

I did a little searching and people with the same issue have traced it to the electronics. Not one of the threads on this topic did the person having the issue state what final repair was. Some even went so far as rebuild the transmission, a couple replaced the shift solenoids and not one fixed their problem. One traced it to transmission code 624, EPC circuit failure.

Not sure what brand of fluid you used or how many miles you have on it or how often you have changed it. I realize the comparison is not there but I change my Ford Escape fluid every 50 k miles. Use Valvoline and now have 312 k miles on it. My thoughts are the recent change is cleaning things up. My advice is change it again then see how things go. Time for me to change my truck fluid too. Its a 93 and loves the USA.

I have changed several solenoid packs in the E4OD's over the years for shift concerns.

That transmission is completely computer controlled. It has no mechanism for determining or controlling shift points. If the computer tells it to shift, it shifts. If the computer tells it to be in 3rd gear, it will be in 3rd gear.

Most Ford transmissions have a provision for a manual selection of 2nd gear by putting it into the "2" position.

By default, most electronic transmissions will default to 2nd gear if they lose power from the computer. They will have 2nd, park, neutral, and reverse in that case.

Computer reads input and output sensors to determine what gear the transmission is in. If sensor readings do not agree with commanded gear, an error code is set. Commanded gear depends on engine loading, road speed, and RPM primarily.

In a case like yours the main suspect would be an output sensor. No output speed signal would delay a shift. The fact that it does start out in 1st indicates that some signal is reaching the transmission, since it requires a signal from the computer to activate 1st gear by energizing the appropriate solenoid. Another possible cause would be a bad driver or drivers in the computer. There is also the possibility of just a bit of corrosion on the 120-pin connector at the computer. Grounding is another possible cause.

Every actuator in Ford systems is activated by grounding through drivers in the computer. Everything is always hot when the ignition is on. Computer activates solenoids by completing the circuit to ground. The computer has several wires that go to ground. It is important that they have a good ground throughout the chassis to the battery. A bad ground can cause all sorts of strange things to happen because a circuit with a bad ground can back feed through other circuits to find a path to ground.

Given the possible causes for this problem, there is no one short answer that will fix them all. Each can be caused by something different.

Had same sort of problem with my 94 F350 460 and at. Was so bad truck was running in limp home mode. Made towing trailer a horrid experience. Finally, got checking and solenoid failure was problem. The solder joints of the solenoids to the board were cold solder, ie not really bonded 100%,which had deteriorated to zero %. There is one positive feed in to all 5 solenoids, thru each, then back to main computer for processing to ground-or no ground. I got the wiring harness from a donor truck so I can plug in and check without pulling the pan. I fixed mine in about 10 minutes, put wire to connect as well as solder to trace o board. Has NOT missed a shift or been in the wrong gear at the wrong time, up hill down hill, loaded trailer or just truck since. Mileage and performance greatly improved. Now it is a nice truck to drive. Most of the time I am not aware of shifts occurring.

Notice in the most right hand of the group of 5 pins, that is unsoldered. That is trouble.

This pix shows the hard wire I added. There is another circuit in the connector that is temp sense IIRC.

I had a 91 or 2 ford van, all the bells and whistles, it had a eod trany in it . started having shifting problems, also cruise control problems, same time, found the cruise problem was the module in the steering wheel wiring, the shifting problem was in the tps switch, throttle position switch, it was telling the computer a different story than I was, eventfully it would throw a code for the tps , replaced tps and that solved the shifting problems. mark55

I fought mine for a few weeks before I determined it was the control module.
Multi position switch are known to go bad on the earlier ones. It can be replaced pretty easy and inexpensive or you can check it with a ohm meter.
Another problem is the harness that plugs into the right side. It gets hot from exhaust. Mine were pretty bad there and above the trans they were tore up to. I dont know if that was the what fried the control module or the fact that it had water corrosion. They're in a poor place. I made a make shift shield to deflect water coming down the firewall but I think it can still get in through the cowling. Any way I would check the wiring and the mps. As someone else said tps could be bad.

(quoted from post at 17:35:49 10/11/20) I fought mine for a few weeks before I determined it was the control module.
Multi position switch are known to go bad on the earlier ones. It can be replaced pretty easy and inexpensive or you can check it with a ohm meter.
Another problem is the harness that plugs into the right side. It gets hot from exhaust. Mine were pretty bad there and above the trans they were tore up to. I dont know if that was the what fried the control module or the fact that it had water corrosion. They're in a poor place. I made a make shift shield to deflect water coming down the firewall but I think it can still get in through the cowling. Any way I would check the wiring and the mps. As someone else said tps could be bad.

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I think you must mean MLPS?

I know nothing about this topic