January 2018 Archives - Transmission Digest
Learn New Things

You are not supposed to get to the finish line in pristine condition. You are supposed to cross the line a burnt out, beat up hulk, and through the smoke and leakage, yell, “WHAT A RIDE!”

January 2018 Issue

In This Issue
Ford F-450 & F-550 trucks with 5R110W intermittent solenoid codes
Mitsubishi Fuso FE & FG series ’05-10 code dealer adjust
Dodge AS68RC: Cooler-line retaining clips
GM 4L60/65/70E: P0894 transmission component slip

Fleeting Car Counts?

The arrival of a new year brings with it an ownership and management need to evaluate how well a shop has been performing and to determine via forward-gazing what would make the shop more efficient and/or effective in providing services at a profit. In years past Transmission Digest has chronicled the changing focus of transmission shops that, in a post-350 world exchanged a specialization in domestic automatics and manuals to one more focused on automatics only, albeit automatics wearing both domestic and international name plates.

‘Rebuilt’ salvage-yard transmission, hmmm …

We had a local general repair shop bring us a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee 3.6L V-6 engine equipped with a ZF 8-speed (845RE) transmission; they had just installed a “rebuilt” transmission that was sourced from a salvage yard. The customer’s stated concern was, “The place that built the transmission just said it needed to be programmed.” Needless to say, we knew that this was going to be an adventure.

Make a New Friend: Programming

The automotive sector is rapidly following the IT sector and becoming more complex by the minute. To shed some light on this trend, I will discuss programming in a series of articles.

A ‘Guess Why’ Tech Article

A 2006 Ford Focus 2.3L with a 4F27E transmission comes into a shop with a complaint of a harsh garage shift into gear (drive and reverse), as well as harsh lift throttle coast downshifts. All forward upshifts are perfect. There are no codes stored in the system. In some cases, the transmission had been rebuilt, which included a different valve body and solenoids in an attempt to resolve the problem.

Valve Body – Vacuum test locations

Valve Body – Vacuum test locations

Not Bragging, Just Super-Blessed

Vehicles Unlimited is a business by the Schudy family, for the Schudy family, and the unrelated employees are also considered family. When Pat speaks of his young staff, he is speaking of “my boys.”