saewoody
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- June 11, 2007
- Messages
- 123
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- City, State
- CT
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1997 XLT (RIP)
2003 XLT
Haven’t been on the forum much since my 97 was totaled several years ago, but I bought an 03 this past winter that drove very nice. But at the end of June it blew out the OD servo cover. At this point I’m at a crossroads and hoping you guys with more experience can help me out. I will apologize for the long post ahead of time. I just want to be as informative as possible. Thanks.
Order of events: My wife said the OD light came on and I told her to turn off the car and see if it came back on. It didn’t come back on, but later in the day while stopped at a drive thru for coffee the servo cover blew for the first time. Had it towed it home. The cover was about half way out, still being held on partly by the snap ring.
I did a lot of reading on the topic. Based on the reading I did it seemed that some people just pushed the cover back in and had no further problems. So I gave that a shot. It lasted about two weeks before it happened again. This time I happened to be right behind my wife and saw the smoke from the fluid on the exhaust and towed her home with a tow strap. I did pull the codes after the first break down.
Some of the other things I read seemed to point me in the direction of AJ1E servo kits with the o rings on the shaft. I emailed them and the response I got said that this probably is not my issue, but that most likely it’s a stuck pressure relief valve, and it might be possible that changing the fluid could help. Fluid looked clean when I bought the truck, and I probably replace about 5 quarts when I refilled it after the first blowout. I just pulled the cover the other day and found the inner o ring broken. I don’t think that was the cause of the problem, but I suppose it could have happened when I pushed the cover back in the first time.
So ultimately my question is do I just put the cover back in with new o rings, which again will come with another several quarts of new fluid and hope it frees up a possibly stuck pressure relief valve. Or order one of the AJ1E OD servos since I’m working in there already. I really don’t want to spend any extra money I don’t want to.
As far as the codes go, I really have no way of knowing if they were set when the OD light came on (I guess at least one of them caused to go off), or if they are a result of the cover blowing. Again, I apologize for the long post; just trying to be as detailed as possible. Thanks again!
Order of events: My wife said the OD light came on and I told her to turn off the car and see if it came back on. It didn’t come back on, but later in the day while stopped at a drive thru for coffee the servo cover blew for the first time. Had it towed it home. The cover was about half way out, still being held on partly by the snap ring.
I did a lot of reading on the topic. Based on the reading I did it seemed that some people just pushed the cover back in and had no further problems. So I gave that a shot. It lasted about two weeks before it happened again. This time I happened to be right behind my wife and saw the smoke from the fluid on the exhaust and towed her home with a tow strap. I did pull the codes after the first break down.
Some of the other things I read seemed to point me in the direction of AJ1E servo kits with the o rings on the shaft. I emailed them and the response I got said that this probably is not my issue, but that most likely it’s a stuck pressure relief valve, and it might be possible that changing the fluid could help. Fluid looked clean when I bought the truck, and I probably replace about 5 quarts when I refilled it after the first blowout. I just pulled the cover the other day and found the inner o ring broken. I don’t think that was the cause of the problem, but I suppose it could have happened when I pushed the cover back in the first time.
So ultimately my question is do I just put the cover back in with new o rings, which again will come with another several quarts of new fluid and hope it frees up a possibly stuck pressure relief valve. Or order one of the AJ1E OD servos since I’m working in there already. I really don’t want to spend any extra money I don’t want to.
As far as the codes go, I really have no way of knowing if they were set when the OD light came on (I guess at least one of them caused to go off), or if they are a result of the cover blowing. Again, I apologize for the long post; just trying to be as detailed as possible. Thanks again!