Slipping A4LD

[Redav72]

Yesterday on the way to work my trans started slipping pretty badly as i tried to accelerate on the highway. I made it to work and stopped by Advance Auto on the way back home, I put a whole (24oz) bottle of Lucas transmission fix in and made it home without further slipping. Now I know at this point that I'm on borrowed time, but the question is how much? I've got 165k on it. It's still very new to me but I did a fluid replace and filter about 1,000 miles ago as well as an external spin-on filter in front of the cooler. I'm starting to look for a new transmission but I want to baby this thing as long as I can. I have a AAA membership and this is vehicle 4 in our fleet, I should be able to afford to push the envelope here.

Tonight I'm going to change out 5 quarts to dilute the Lucas a little, and pray that it holds. In the best of all worlds I squeeze another 20k out of it before I have to replace/overhaul the transmission. Moonshot or just a long-shot?

Quality re-built transmissions seem to be about $2400 and high milage scrap yard for $350. I'm not sure what way I'll go or maybe I'll find something in-between. It's a 1994 3.0 4x4 so beggars can't be choosers.

 

[rumblecloud]

I am definitely not a tranny expert, but maybe just a band adjustment will get you some more miles.
Trans experts don't start work until later today, so stay tuned.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Yeah, I’d start with a band adjustment, think it’s supposed to be done something like every 20-50k but nobody does it.

I‘m also a big fan of shift kits and valve body mods. I did a TransGo kit in my 92 plus some extras like new O-rings and gasket for the reverse servo. That was around 170k on mine. Adjusted the bands as best I could (rust was a factor). It was a ripper after that until someone decided to pass a semi in the center turn lane and found my truck…

 

[Redav72]

So I went back to basics and looked at the quick things first. I backed out the screw in the vacuum modulator three turns and I’m not getting the “slipping” any more. I wonder if it was actually a downshift that felt like a slip. I still plan the band adjustment next weekend

 

[Redav72]

Question as I’m working on this transmission. My transmission cooler is directly connected to the transmission but I’m seeing other posts reference the radiator intercooler as before the standalone cooler. Mine is just the standalone. Did the 94 with a4ld come with the intercooler + trans cooler?

 

[Redav72]

Ok, found my answer. The previous owner bypassed the inter-cooler. Going to need to scavenge some tubing from the junkyard to restore the loop.