From the day I purchased the truck to a couple weeks ago, when starting, the engine would have a slightly high rpm, then the rpms would drop to normal after a short running period. The vehicle gets very little use, just short runs around town.
I've performed various work on the vehicle such as replace the PS pump, AC work, Oil Change, install Brake Pads, but have never attempted to work on the automatic transmission as that's a little out of my leaque. However I would like to know what I'm up against to avoid being taken to the cleaners as the saying goes.
Two weeks ago after making one of the short runs around town for some reason or another, and returning home, I noticed that after parking the vehicle and putting it in park, the engine was racing somewhat. Frankly I didn't think too much of it as I was coming down with the flu or something and couldn't think straight.
One week ago, needing to make another short run to the pharmacy for a medical refill, I noticed that the engine raced excessively when starting cold with the rpms dropping slightly after the notmal warm up, but they never dropped to what one would call the normal idling range..... but when putting the transmission into any position other than neutral or park, the idle appeared to drop to normal. Moving the shift indicator to neutral or park resulted in an excessive rpm range. However, at this time, the shifting of the vehicle appeared to be normal.
Today (12/29/04), starting the vehicle immediately resulted in a very high idle rpm, so much that by reflex I hit and released the gas pedal quickly in an attempt to free it should it have stuck on something. This reflex action had no effect and the high rpm continued, dropping only slightly after a short warm up period.
My location is central west Florida so keep in mind that I am not experiencing any kind of cold weather interference.
Pulling away from the house, applying a small amount of throttle, the engine appeared to roar but there was very little accelleration, such as one would experience with a slipping automatic transmission. I gently accelerated the vehicle up beyond what one would consider the first gear range, and carefully guided it up through the second gear range. After that, the third and fourth gear range seemed to operate as they should. The second gear range may have been fine also but I didn't want to force the issue as the saying goes.
However, even though I apparently was experiencing slippage, before pulling away from the house, the high rpms dropped to normal as soon as I shifted from "P"ark to "D"rive.
Thinking the transmission might be low on fluid, I purchased a quart of tranmission fluid while out..... the correct type for the 1988 Ford F-150.
Arriving home, I looked under the vehicle and found that the bottom of the transmission and the bell housing was thoroughly wet with oil, fluid, whatever. I didn't feel like crawling under there just yet (Damn Flu!).
Engine not running. I checked the transmission dip stick and found that the fluid was extremely high and it was not RED in color. The color appeared to be more yellow than anything else.
Engine running, transmission in "P"ark. I checked the transmission fluid level and found it still to be extremely high, yellowish in color rather than red and it appeared to have bubbles in it... or it was foaming. The feel of the fluid felt to me like it was of a higher viscosity than normal.
I have never added anything to the transmission fluid that would tranform the color from RED to this yellowish look and have no idea how that would take place.
Hopefully I have not forgot to enter anything and will await a reply.
Joe