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Hmm... I think I had it in that way originally. Then I flipped it so the end with the single hole in the end went up in first. Seems to be driving fine at the moment. Will need more time to test.
 
Most of the escorts I have had were 5-speeds. I am learning more and more about the automagics just by reading the forums. This one is very interesting. My 99 ZX2 trans has suffered a bout of almost zero pressure which then came back after sitting. I wonder if this little dude has anything to do with it.
 
I took the pan off and cleaned out the filter ' box '. I found a bunch of stuff in the screen and at the bottom of the drained oil that looked like lint ( ?? ) Got a new filter and gasket. Took out the little pressure valve too. Thought for a minute there was no spring but it snuck past me into the drain pan. The valve was stuck in place but not hard, I pulled it down with a piece of wire. Then pushed it up and down in the bore to try and loosen it up. It would fall of its own weight but not always. I ordered up one of Gil's replacement valves from Oregon Performance to see if that helps. It seems to work okay most of the time but sometimes shifts a little flaky after getting on it a lot. Maybe the new valve will help. 132,000 mile trans.
Also welded a small 6mm nut on lowest point of pan so it can have a real drain plug. Thanks for posting that whole pic of the Transgo valve, I am going to try one.
This transmission seemed to have a real tough time getting primed up again after being drained out at the pan. Completely filled back up and still not wanting to get pressure till I almost overfilled it and revved it up a bunch. Does that mean my pump is about dead? Or is it normal. Probably just me
 
Discussion starter · #47 ·
This transmission seemed to have a real tough time getting primed up again after being drained out at the pan. Completely filled back up and still not wanting to get pressure till I almost overfilled it and revved it up a bunch. Does that mean my pump is about dead? Or is it normal. Probably just me
I would expect that after a drain and refill. Having said that, I idle the car for about a minute, especially in cold weather on the first start of the day, before engaging the transmission. The fact that your valve was stuck tells me that you can make good use of the new valve and spring, but I would clean out that area as good as I could before putting in the new parts.

Thanks for Identifying the place where you can get a new one now. A link would be helpful as well.

I wish I have given this thread a more meaningful thread title. You know, like actually putting transmission somewhere in the title. At the time I had no idea how useful this thread would be.
 
This whole forum has been helpful to me. I just try to help back, with a dumb story or pictures or whatever. I commenced in attempting to order one and somewhere along the line it turned into the Oregon Performance of your list of different places. I have an order in process right now. Around $26 with shipping. I hope it helps. I have another trans that has been rebuilt but I sure don't want to change it if it is okay and especially not in January in Michigan
 
Now that I've had the valve and spring in for a while I can say it seemed to completely clear up the random pause/lazy shifting between certain gears. It has been a while so I don't remember if it was between 1&2 or 2&3.
 
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Drove it about 100 miles the other day, it seemed to work pretty good but it does seem a little ' lazy ' like you described. zzyzzx - if you changed the oil once in a while and didn't run it till it was severely worn out that was the number one factor in helping them last. People get worried about running the oil in their motor more than a few thousand miles but leave the trans oil in for 100,000 plus. Here's a pic of my nifty little 6mm drain plug to help make that easier.
 

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Discussion starter · #52 ·
That drain plug is nice, but personally I just used an extractor and sucked the old transmission fluid out using a tube down the transmission dipstick tube.
 
Or you could do like me and have the line pop off while taking a test drive after installing a trans cooler. :banghead: It drains pretty quick that way.
 
Yeah, I bet they do. My son used the Harbor Freight siphon tool with a small diameter hose down the dipstick last year. He could only get a quart at a time but it helped. After a while his fluid actually started to get red looking.
Well Mr. Mailman just dumped off my part from Oregon Performance Transmission so now I can go put it in. We'll see what kind of difference it makes.
 

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Referencing the parts I show here:
http://www.feoa.net/modules.php?name=Fo ... ic&t=61316



This is a very easy fix to do. First thing you do is remove two splash shields to reveal your transmission oil pump. It's the rusty thing in the middle of the picture below:



You are trying to remove the bolt circled in red below. As you can see, you can not use a ratchet on this. A 21MM open ended wrench or crows feet would be my first two choices. Since I didn't have either one of those, I used an adjustable wrench. It would probably been easier to remove the wheel, but I did not do this because I already had the car jacked up.



Once you have removed the bolt, it should look like this:


Very little fluid will come out when you remove the "valve" and spring, maybe a tablespoon. But you will still want a pan there:



Here is a side by side comparison of the "valve" with the new one on the right. Note that the end with the hole in it goes into the pump first with the hole on the upper side (like shown).



This is a side by side comparicon of the springs, with the new spring on the right:



This is a very easy fix to make and I do recommend it. For comparison purposes, it is much easier than an engine oil change!

Also note that there is more than one manufacturer for this fix kit, so your might look dirrerent. The one shown above is Transgo F4A-valve.
I have a 2000 ford escort ZX2 with a F4E-III transmission. Will this kit fit my trans? I found the part from one of your other posts http://www.transmissionpartsusa.com/F4A_EL_GF4A_EL_Transmission_Pump_Valve_Kit_p/500-000033933.htm I'm just not sure if the F4A-EL means it will work on a range of transmission or just a couple specific ones. I'm having the same issue as everyone else here so I'm hoping I can try this simple fix. Thanks
 
Discussion starter · #57 · (Edited)
Discussion starter · #58 ·
I have a 2000 ford escort ZX2 with a F4E-III transmission. Will this kit fit my trans? I found the part from one of your other posts http://www.transmissionpartsusa.com/F4A_EL_GF4A_EL_Transmission_Pump_Valve_Kit_p/500-000033933.htm I'm just not sure if the F4A-EL means it will work on a range of transmission or just a couple specific ones. I'm having the same issue as everyone else here so I'm hoping I can try this simple fix. Thanks
What prompted me to do this, besides occasional infrequent issue on really cold days where the car had sat for days, was information from this thread:
https://www.feoa.net/threads/random-fyi.8835/

ISSUE:
Some vehicles may exhibit an engagement delay when shifting the vehicle from "Park" to "Reverse" and/or "Drive" at initial driveaway. This may be caused by transaxle fluid draining from the torque converter while the vehicle is parked for more than 12 hours.

ACTION:
Install a revised valve body to reduce the possibility of fluid draining back from the torque converter. Refer to the following Service Procedure for details.


Except that I am pretty sure that the TSB applies to all years. We need someone with an Alldata subscription to loo it up and block and copy (ATRA also requires a subscription).
 
Here is what I've found so far.

A transgo tech support specialist told me the part will not fit my f4e-III and the part is specifically for the F4EAT or F4A-EL transmissions.

However I received the following email from transmissionpartsusa.com president:

"Andy,

Yes that product will work with your transmission. Your transmission falls under the F4A-EL category when ordering parts.

Thank you,

Terry L Garver

President"

I haven't had a chance to jack the car up and check for the bolt in the same place yet but I think the part will be here tomorrow so I'll be checking it soon.

I stumbled across something I think ford escort owners may find very useful in my researching this issue. It's a pdf service manual ill post below. It has everything you can imagine to do with troubleshooting these transmissions. Hopefully its helpful to someone here.

here it is. https://procarmanuals.com/ford-f4-eat-f4e-iii-atsg-automatic-transmission-service-group/

Just click on the red link at the bottom of the page then on the next page once you hover your mouse over the image of the manual you'll see a little box with a down arrow next to "zoom 100%" then just save it to your computer.

I'll post back my findings. It will be interesting to see if the transgo specialist was right or the president of transmissionpartsusa was right. I had also checked with napa auto parts to get their take and they agreed with Terry Garver.

I wanted to personally thank you for starting this thread. I really would have never found this potential fix otherwise. Even if the part doesn't fix the problem, as long as it can be installed I know its still an upgrade to what I had.
 
The large plug on the bottom driver's side of the transmission probably takes a 20mm diameter box end wrench. Since it can be hard to uscrew, and there isnt a good way to get a box end werench onto it (cause its too close to the trans oil pan), I took a 20mm box end and ground away some of the 'box' so the wrench could fit onto the plug. A good fit with an adjustable wrench might work though.

The transgo part is a good upgrade, but wont fix problems of worn out clutch-packs.
 
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