Hi:
Thanks for the prompt reply. My truck is a 94 F350 7.3L turbo crewcab. I'll start working on my truck as soon as the weather warms up a bit, they promise -11 C for today (in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada).
ItWent to Daytona for Bike Week, towing a 24' enclosed trailer with 4 bikes in it, I figure about 5,000 lbs in total, my guesstimate. It was the first time I've used the truck to pull heavy loads. Got down there without problems, although it didn't have the power that I thought it would have, for a turbo diesel. I'm wondering if the turbo is working at all.
Most of the time in 3rd gear, as overdrive didn't have the torque, and I didn't like to have it going from od to 3rd and back up too often.
On the return trip, weather was much warmer already in the morning, and 3 hours after starting out the flashing od light started.
Stupidity made me ignore it, just kept going, as everything seemed to be running OK. Just as we entered Georgia, noticed a cloud of smoke caming out of the truck suddenly. Stopped, checked underneath, and sure enough there's were flames starting out under the transmission. Fortunately had an extinguisher by the tailgate in the box, and quickly put out the fire. Transmission fluid was running out of the drain plug I installed in the pan a few months ago. As the plug just screws into the pan, there are only about 2 threads holding it tight, with a nylon washer on the outside.
It seems to me that the tranny fluid overheated, literally melted the nylon washer on the drain plug, which allowed the oil to start leaking. When I removed the drain plug, about 5-7 quarts came out still. When I tried to put the plug back in, it wouldn't tighten up, so I dropped the pan and put a bolt/washer/nut to plug up the hole, and refilled the tranny with 16 quarts of new fluid.
All this of course, on the side of I-95, soaked in tranny fluid by now. Fortunately I had a bunch of old towels that helped soak up the oil from the pavement, so I could work.
Anyway, driving very slowly after that, no further problems seem to exist, so I believe the problem was overheating of the oil first, which caused the leak. From reading in the forum, it's now working in limp mode, with the characteristic hard shifting, and flashing od light.
I had no choice but to drive it home the rest of the 900 miles as is, and unfortunately with lots of heavy pulling up hill through the Apalachian mountains.
I'm planning on installing an oil cooler rad or two, and I'll check everything out when the weather starts to warm up a bit; wiring to the tranny, connectors, FIPL settings, etc.
I hope I won't have to do the tranny rebuild.
Could you tell me what kind of code reader should I get, and where does it plug in?
Thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it.
Dan
