Well, bought this 2001 7.3 F250 from a friend of mine in San Clemente Ca. I drove it back to my house in Tucson Az, after a couple weeks visiting friends and family in Ca. Things seemed fine with the truck for the 2 weeks I drove around SoCal. Road trip home was pretty interesting though. Coming over the mountain pass before El Centro heading out of San Diego, everything still seemed fine except I started to notice the noise that I thought was tire noise went silent when turning left around the big sweeping turns coming down the mountain. That's when I realized it was probably a wheel bearing. Not long after, I noticed the trans temp gage was way up around 230*! Yikes. So we pulled off the freeway and went to the nearest town, Holtville. I was sitting in the gas station there letting things cool off and it dawned on me that is where John Wood's shop was. Being that he built the trans in this truck as well as a ton of other work that was done to the truck, I headed over to his shop. Now I have to give the man credit, he dropped what he was doing and went for a ride in the truck with me and the wife to see what was going on. I know he is a busy guy, so this gesture was not lost on me. He said everything seemed to be ok from just a general test drive, and told me to fix the wheel bearing and take it slow on the trip home. Well it was a slow trip back to Tucson. If I stayed down around 60mph, the trans would run about 190*. Keep in mind this is a John Wood built trans with a 6.0 trans cooler. It should not be getting hot with no load on it like this.
The next day, I dealt with the wheel bearings and replaced both front hubs. I figured it was time to turn front rotors and replace pads while I was at it. In my stupidity, I put the caliper back on with the new brakes even though I had a real hard time moving the pistons to accomodate the new brake pads. That was a mistake. Within a couple blocks, the truck was pulling hard to the right. I got out to check it out and smelled hot brakes. Stuck my head in the wheel well only to find the rubber brake parts on fire! So turns out that wheel bearing got hot enough for the caliper to sieze. My bad there. I should have realized the problem with the caliper and never put it back on... So got all that fixed, new calipers, new front hubs/wheel bearings, new front brakes, turned rotors. I also dropped the trans pan and changed the filter and flushed about 21 qt fluid through it. The trans has run nice and cool (150 to 160) even towing my horse trailer (about 3100lbs) up a mountain and around town and on the highway since then. Zero issues.
So front end problems solved, and trans seems to be running normal now. What I am wondering is if there was enough heat generated from the failing wheel bearing and it's affect on the brakes (not to mention the drag created) to cause my trans to overheat? What do ya'll think?
The next day, I dealt with the wheel bearings and replaced both front hubs. I figured it was time to turn front rotors and replace pads while I was at it. In my stupidity, I put the caliper back on with the new brakes even though I had a real hard time moving the pistons to accomodate the new brake pads. That was a mistake. Within a couple blocks, the truck was pulling hard to the right. I got out to check it out and smelled hot brakes. Stuck my head in the wheel well only to find the rubber brake parts on fire! So turns out that wheel bearing got hot enough for the caliper to sieze. My bad there. I should have realized the problem with the caliper and never put it back on... So got all that fixed, new calipers, new front hubs/wheel bearings, new front brakes, turned rotors. I also dropped the trans pan and changed the filter and flushed about 21 qt fluid through it. The trans has run nice and cool (150 to 160) even towing my horse trailer (about 3100lbs) up a mountain and around town and on the highway since then. Zero issues.
So front end problems solved, and trans seems to be running normal now. What I am wondering is if there was enough heat generated from the failing wheel bearing and it's affect on the brakes (not to mention the drag created) to cause my trans to overheat? What do ya'll think?