I just bought this truck, it has 117500 miles, for the purpose of hauling my truck camper.
It runs great; however the transmission makes excessive planetary gear noise when running in 1st or 2nd gear (and running at very low speed only).
some people say that so planetary gear noise is normal.
I took it to Ken Grody Ford and they said it is excessive and that it could let me down somewhere, we travel up to 1000miles into Mexico.

Please help us out with this and let us know your thoughts.

Zane.

 

I would get a second opinion. I have a 97 7.3 psd and the tranny never made any noises until 175k. Then I had it re-built for 1500 dollars. And now it has 230k and running like a champ.

 

Don't take your truck to the dealership to have the transmission looked at unless you truck is under warranty. Their answer will always end with you spending a lot of money.

Find a good independent transmission shop. If you don't know of one, ask your nearest 4 wheel drive parts store for a recommendation.

In 2002 my old 1995 F-150 4x4 started leaking transmission fluid, a lot of fluid. The local dealer recommended a rebuilt 4R70W and highly recommended checking the transfer case. Total bill would have been over $2000 if I had let them do what they wanted. A local shop checked it out, found a gasket that had failed, fixed the problem, flushed the transmission (and converter) and replaced the filter for under $200. That transmission was still in the truck and working perfectly 150,000 miles later, when I traded the truck in.