fluid question...not explorer related tho

[boggs1227]

my father just bought a motorhome 2 weeks ago and yesturday we got to cleaner her up and started looking at all the useally areas of interrest motor wise......well i opened the rad cap and saw blackish-greenish coolant .thinking that it was just in poor condition i got to the transmission .....blackish-greenish/little red in it !

this thing is a 91' fleetwood rv with a ford 460 big block in it but as to the transmission type i don't know .i relize what the problem is ,the cooler in side the radiator is bleeding tranmission fluid and coolant all together ....needs a new radiator .the guy that owns the storage property just so happend to have his friend come over to look at a car that he was selling and looked at the rv for us ( he says he works at a tranmission shop btw ) " oh yeah that tranmission fluid looks ok not good but ok " .....i mean come on ...even i know better than that while drunk .

my question is ,this rv has got 65k on it and i know what needsto be fixed
(new rad / fluids and a flush of both systems ) ...would it be safe to say that with so little miles on it that flushing the system either by the bucket method or have it taken to a shop for back flushing the transmission will hurt the transmission and make it fail ?? it calls for mercon .....or with the fluid in such bad shape would it be advisable to just drain it and add new to it .i would really hate for him to have to replace it if it fails from a procedure that i told him about but i just want to get some advise before we start any work .

thanks

 

[dogfriend]

I think your trans is the E4OD. My GF has a motorhome with the 4R100 which is very similar. I haven't done a fluid change yet, but the E4OD should have a drain plug in the pan, and a rubber plug in the bellhousing. The torque converter has a drain plug which can be accessed by removing the rubber plug and rotating the converter until the plug is at the bottom. You could also blow out the cooler lines with low pressure air before refilling with ATF.

I would try to get as much of the old ATF out as possible, then do the home flush method until it looks nice and red.

 

[boggs1227]

thank you ,i think your right about it .i'll try to get all i can out then do the bucket flush on it and that should get for him .

side note: i guess i'm doing the work for him free of charge because he gave me the first one he bought this year ( had some roof leaks and other repairs but very fixable ) ...just got it pulled to the house about 3 days ago ...31' fleetwood pull camper ( a.k.a "the death star" ) ..... not to bad for free....just have to fix the roof and put the kitchen back together ( ack lol ! )