460 or V10

j-d wrote:
In 2002, we have the tail-end of the 4R100 generation. Ford took the venerable C6, a three-speed, added an overdrive that engaged electrically, and called it E4OD. Then in 1997 they added an all-electronic control system (solenoid-operated valve body) and called it 4R100.
C6 was a bulletproof icon. E4OD had lots of failures, at least at first. 4R100 seems to have been good.* Same for 5R110/TorqShift. Very surprised the low-mileage one had a problem. 'Specially Phil's - he seems to take care of things.
*At least behind gas engines. The annoying downshift they do on slight grades take it from 4th-locked to 3rd-locked. That annoyance means the torque converter doesn't run around unlocked. Behind diesels they apparently do, and overheat. This is from a credible third party source. I didn't dig it out myself...

Yep, the 4R100 is pretty reliable behind the gas engines, not so much behind the diesels. I think a large contributor to it is the OD clutches aren't the strongest, and the low-end grunt of the 7.3 allows drivers to haul items in 4th all day. V10's gotta rev, so you end up in 3rd when there's anything more than a slight load, which is perfectly fine with me.

pnichols wrote:
We bought our 2005 Itasca Class C in January of 2006.

The tranny shop will tear our original 5R110 tranny completely apart in a couple of days to find out in detail what went on inside - over and above the burned clutches they discovered early-on. I'll call them just out of curiosity to see what they found.

One thing I may be doing in my driving - that I've been told is hard on automatic transmissions - is generous use the Tow/Haul mode when going down grades so as to take maximum advantage of engine breaking instead of the brakes. The tranny sometimes really spins up when doing this - with the torque coming into the tranny from it's back end (the rear axle) instead of it's front end (the engine). I wonder if I'd better stop doing this - which may consequently increase my rate of brake pad replacement? You can't win for loosin'. :h

P.S. ..... OR, I wonder if my repair shop didn't put the wrong type of tranny fluid in it when I had them completely flush it at 25K miles? Ford is adamant about using ONLY SP FLUID in their TorqShift transmissions, but some mechanics may not know, or pay any attention to, this .... and just put good old Mercon fluid into the later year Ford transmissions.

Failures are extremely rare with these transmissions behind the gas motors. I look forward to your report on likely cause of failure. Now you've got me nervous about my 5R110. :)