4r100 Rebuild

Watersurgeon

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2003, 7.3, 4x4 roughly 210,000.

This issue started a couple years ago and has gotten progressively worse. In a nutshell the forward gears will not engage until the engine temperature reaches operating temperature. Reverse works fine, cold. When this first started happening, I had to wait until the tranny reached operating temperature, now I have to wait until the engine reaches running temp. If I attempted to engage the tranny, before the tranny oil or later the engine operating temp, hear a scream coming out of the tranny, no forward engagement. Now once the engine is hot, I put it into drive and then have to give the throttle a couple quick hits and then the tranny engages. Once engaged I have no issues driving. I have not tried to tow with this issue for obvious reasons. I have changed the fluid, flushed, replaced the filter, made sure the feed bolts were tight.

I believe the issue was created by the first owner. I bought the truck in 04' with 7,000 miles on it. Just prior to flying out to get it the dealer that was selling it for a friend of his calls me up and tells me to wait a few days because his buddy came to the lot over the previous weekend and got the truck so he could pull tree stumps on his property. In the process he snapped a chain and it went through the tail gate so it had to be replaced. I got the truck and a year later I had an issue with the transfer case engaging. It was still under warranty so I had it fixed. The dealer told me the case was fried and asked if I had been doing any heavy aggressive pulling. A few years after that I started noticing the following. I bring the front tires up to let’s say a street curb, dead stop, then push the accelerator and the truck would struggle to go up the curb, as if first was slipping. Any ideas on the issue?

I was told by one tranny guy, does not work on these, the problem with having to wait for everything to warm up might be the pump seals. As he put it as the tranny heats up the seals are swelling up which is allowing your pump to produce enough pressure to engage the tranny, otherwise the fluid is just leaking by. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

2nd: part. I am in Southern California. I was going to have John Wood rebuild the tranny a few years back but Covid hit. My plan was to have him do the tranny the first of this year. When I looked into it last summer he was still in business, then around Sept, there were changes to his web site mentioning supply chain issues. The first of the year his web site went off line. I finally got a hold of him two weeks ago and it looks like he closed shop, he said he's doing some tyranny’s out of his house but the wait list was twenty deep and the price he quoted was more than he was charging when he operated a full-service shop. He also said the contract company he uses for his CNC work was in Canada, starting last summer started having major delivery issues with them and it has been ongoing since and getting worse.

If I could fine an 4R100 out here used I would buy it and rebuild it but there pretty hard to find and I have scoured every junk yard source I know for west coast Junkers. I've got several contract jobs coming up across the country so I need a rebuild that I can get at least a couple hundred thousand miles out of. Over the years I have read countless stories where inexperienced builders have claimed they can rebuild a 4r100 and guys have been stranded on the side of the road which is why I wanted John Wood to rebuild it. I've looked a couple of on-line builders and a lot of them are claiming back logs because of supply chain issues, although I have not confirmed that with a phone call.

So my first question. Anybody located in SoCal that know a builder, or know where I can find a used 4r100, or have one laying around? My 2nd question, If I can't find a builder who's shop ships trannies that you have personally used and recommend and why? Although I am not prone to do this, I have a corporate relationship with a local Ford Dealer and I if I can't find a solution to this problem quickly, I may have to resort to having them order me a ford remanufactured HD unit. Any of you know anything about these units. Not sure who is actually doing the rebuild on them?

Cheers and thanks for any input.

3rd, what torque converter do you recommend?

Thx.

Ford truck enthusiast.
 

psduser1

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Bluntly, sounds like you've got your money's worth out of this truck.

If you want a competition trans, spend 45-6k on the guy of your choice, and whatever comes with it. That guy will set you up with a great converter.

Or, buy a jasper, pay a shop to put it in, along with a converter, and deal with the results. Some people have pretty good results with this route.

Third option is to do some research on a local guy, spend some time talking to him, and let that guy build a trans that will work for you. A little bit of time researching how converters work, and you can pick an rpm range that works for a converter in your situation.
It ain't rocket science, and a minimum of work on your part will make everything go so much smoother. I mean, these are 20 year old transmissions, and a lot of shops are experienced enough to make a stockish unit hold together for a couple hundred housand miles, barring dumbass owners.
That scenario will save you maybe a couple grand.
 

Denver

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I'd call Domestic Diesel in Chino and ask who they use for 4R100 rebuilds. JW has pretty much retired. He was going to rebuild my trans and said he would but it never happened. It would've been the 3rd one I've bought from him. Ended up using a local guy in AZ. It's not as crisp as the JW trans but it was $4500 and I know he'll be around for warranty work.
 

Watersurgeon

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Your username sounds familiar. Were you on Socaps.com back in the day?
Yes. I was pretty active in the group. Friend of Bobby Williams, bought a few Fords through him. Its a bummer the group was relegated to being an internet club and over the years it fell through the cracks. I talked to Bobby two weeks ago and they don't rebuild them anymore at his dealership. He offered me up a name of one guy, but it was not anyone they could highly recommend as there go to guy for diesel tranny rebuilds.
 

Denver

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Yes. I was pretty active in the group. Friend of Bobby Williams, bought a few Fords through him. Its a bummer the group was relegated to being an internet club and over the years it fell through the cracks. I talked to Bobby two weeks ago and they don't rebuild them anymore at his dealership. He offered me up a name of one guy, but it was not anyone they could highly recommend as there go to guy for diesel tranny rebuilds.
My brother and dad had Ford HD4R100s in their trucks and liked them and they never had any troubles. Still weren't as crisp as a JW unit but handled that low end torque punch from the engine pretty well.
 

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