I Don't Know What To Do

[John With Beastly 302]

I have a 1994 Mercury Sable 3.0 with the AX4S transmission. Around 20,000 miles ago I decided to install a Motorguard on a transmission cooler line via a Frantz 3/8" Transmission adapter. 20,000 miles later the reman transmission had 90,000 miles on it and the transmission seemed to slip when shifting so I removed the Motorguard and installed a Magnefine in the Motorguards place. 1,000 miles later the transmission did not slip as bad. So I don't know if the ATF was so clean that the clutches didn't grab as good or I caused damage from restricting the flow from the Frantz adapter in the cooler circuit. Right now I still have the Frantz adapter installed and instead of the Motorguard being between the orifice in the Frantz adapter, the 3/8" Magnefine is. I plan on removing the adapter because with the Magnefine installed with the Frantz adapter I am not getting a high efficiency of filtration. So I am at least going to remove the Frantz adapter and install the Magnefine to get 100% of the cooler line flow flowing throw the Magnefine instead of the orificed flow.
But then the thought comes to me to install the Motorguard by installing a tee in the cooler line and plumbing that signal pressurized line to the Motorguard and returning the oil with a hose pushed down the dipstick tube. I would still have the Magnefine installed so that it gets 100% of the cooler line flow and then have a tee right after the Magnefine to give the Motorguard supply psi. Then I worry that TP is not really designed to filter hot ATF and I worry that the TP may come apart and contaminate my ATF with wood particles. But then I think of all the people who have not had problems with using TP as filter media but that is still not a good enough reason for me. I need scientific proof that TP is OK for filtering hot oil. So I don't know I think I am wasting way too much energy and money on trying to decide on what it is I should do when the original transmission failed at 102,000 miles because of a broken piston which caused the transmission to not go into gear. The car now has 196,000 miles on it with all those miles on the original 3.0 engine and 94,000 miles on a Ford Remanufactured transmission So what do you guys think

 

[chubbs1]

You are loving your transmission to death. Take off the filters and let it be. I Have seen many a post where people change their transmission fluid religiously at x miles and have all of those filters and their transmission still dies at a normal if not early death. It just leads me to believe it is not at best a bunch of hype or at worst dangerous to be messing around with transmissions with all these gadgets and flushes. Take off the [censored] and...Let it be. Good luck

 

[CourierDriver]

Originally Posted By: John With Beastly 302
I have a 1994 Mercury Sable 3.0 with the AX4S transmission. Around 20,000 miles ago I decided to install a Motorguard on a transmission cooler line via a Frantz 3/8" Transmission adapter. 20,000 miles later the reman transmission had 90,000 miles on it and the transmission seemed to slip when shifting so I removed the Motorguard and installed a Magnefine in the Motorguards place. 1,000 miles later the transmission did not slip as bad. So I don't know if the ATF was so clean that the clutches didn't grab as good or I caused damage from restricting the flow from the Frantz adapter in the cooler circuit. Right now I still have the Frantz adapter installed and instead of the Motorguard being between the orifice in the Frantz adapter, the 3/8" Magnefine is. I plan on removing the adapter because with the Magnefine installed with the Frantz adapter I am not getting a high efficiency of filtration. So I am at least going to remove the Frantz adapter and install the Magnefine to get 100% of the cooler line flow flowing throw the Magnefine instead of the orificed flow.
But then the thought comes to me to install the Motorguard by installing a tee in the cooler line and plumbing that signal pressurized line to the Motorguard and returning the oil with a hose pushed down the dipstick tube. I would still have the Magnefine installed so that it gets 100% of the cooler line flow and then have a tee right after the Magnefine to give the Motorguard supply psi. Then I worry that TP is not really designed to filter hot ATF and I worry that the TP may come apart and contaminate my ATF with wood particles. But then I think of all the people who have not had problems with using TP as filter media but that is still not a good enough reason for me. I need scientific proof that TP is OK for filtering hot oil. So I don't know I think I am wasting way too much energy and money on trying to decide on what it is I should do when the original transmission failed at 102,000 miles because of a broken piston which caused the transmission to not go into gear. The car now has 196,000 miles on it with all those miles on the original 3.0 engine and 94,000 miles on a Ford Remanufactured transmission So what do you guys think

I have learned the hard way on transmissions, No. 1,,,No flushes, only change out by pan drop only and refill, I do this every 50k or less, the old fluid is still fresh and I do replace the filter and transmission with atf4 for dodge. I had them add the largest transmission cooler we could get n front of the radiator.( no more running the transmission fluid thu the radiator, heat is the main destroyer of transmissions, not bad fluid. No.2, add 2 bottles of lubegard found at ur NAPA store, i dont use anything else , it is recommended by the OEMs of transmission mfg period. Make sure u get the lubegard that is for( Ford) transmissions.

 

[goodtimes]

I would stick to the factory filter way, drive easy, and keep fingers crossed. The TP filter correctly used is fine, filters below 1 micron and absorbs water etc etc. But at this point, what's the point? Scientific tests may be hard to come by, there just aren't so many people into this anymore. I think, maybe there are books full of tests somewhere.

 

[FusilliJerry82]

Those transmissions are just bad. Not susceptible to poor maintenance per-se, just a bad design.

 

[AlaskaMike]

I agree with Goodtimes. TP just doesn't come apart when compressed and filtering oil. People mistakenly think that because TP is designed to disintigrate when soaked in water, that it'll do the same thing when soaked in oil. Oil is not water, and for some reason some people need to be reminded of that.

If you're going to hold out for study results, forget it--just go back to changing the oil at regular intervals. Small people like us don't get to see those kind of results, they're normally only available to engineers in the oil or filter industries.

If I were in your position, I'd just install a good cooler and put a drain plug in the pan to make those regular fluid changes easier and be done with it.