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Old 08-11-2010, 08:43 PM   #31
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Re: Reman tranny & Rebuilt Engine Replacement.

Back home ... 12000 miles on trip ... 294K altogether now.

Old Winny took some beating on this trip ... many miles of unpaved roads in various parks .. along with road repair going on everywhere in the boonies. Now the windschield has two cracks ... about to meet in the middle. I learned that my practice of leaving the coolant pressure cap a bit loose ... may work fine here near sea level, but can get a guy in trouble when high elevations are encountered. I was lucky not to have overheating!

I've had a MIL light just about the whole trip ... something to do with new fuel pump I had just installed before leaving.

Plus the alternator just died! Glad it waited to get back home!
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Old 08-11-2010, 09:14 PM   #32
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Re: Reman tranny & Rebuilt Engine Replacement.

Alternator dies.......that can cause voltage issues......and cause a MIL.
Don't forget to check out the battery.....a weak battery can place a major load on the alternator.

Fuel pump?......not sure how it would cause a MIL.......vapor recovery system not holding vaccum?......The windstar does not monitor fuel flow or pressure.
So....any codes caused by a fuel pump would be vapor recovery (leaking gasket) or a symptom cause by lack of fuel delivery (pressure/flow).

You are getting good service out of your vehicle......nice job!
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Old 08-16-2010, 11:04 PM   #33
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Re: Reman tranny & Rebuilt Engine Replacement.

Good read... that's an amazing mileage total. Ours is only around 117k, and I have to keep convincing my wife that we are far better off driving it than replacing it, in spite of all of the little things I need to do (door lock actuators, peeling paint on the hood, broken seat base covers, sway bar bushings).
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Old 08-21-2010, 02:13 PM   #34
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Re: Reman tranny & Rebuilt Engine Replacement.

Dropped the fuel tank once again... Lots of fun, not! Replaced the, fairly new, pump and sender assembly once again. No cost replacement from AutoZone. Sure enough, the terminals to the tank pressure sensor were totally "open" when checked with ohmmeter. The new one checked properly.

And the MIL has not shown up after a few hundred miles of driving. Now to replace the windschield and do a bit of brake maintenance. Maybe even wash the thing!
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Old 10-30-2011, 04:34 PM   #35
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Re: Reman tranny & Rebuilt Engine Replacement.

UPDATE: THE BEAST STILL ROLLS ALONG ...320k miles on vehicle .... 100k + miles on engine overhaul and tranny replacement.

Engine: Runs pretty good. Due a tune-up which it may not get for some while. Even tho I've got parts ready. New crank-pulley/harmonic balancer. New front cover seals (small coolant weepage to outside. I have an old synchronizer assembly that I've installed a grease fitting in. Probably will replace spark cables and coil. Will replace sub-frame because current one is so beat-up.

Tranny: The Ford Reman continues to perform well even after 100k + miles. Recently dropped pan ... wiped out, did not replace filter. Tranny insides were amazingly free of black stuff .... NIL! I went ahead and did a 15 qt flush. Finally installed extra cooler that I purchased years ago.

Knock on wood!
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Old 06-08-2012, 06:01 PM   #36
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Re: Reman tranny & Rebuilt Engine Replacement.

UPDATE: 1/3 MILLION MILES REACHED!

Actually on 337k miles today! Except for an occassional unexplained Trac Control engagement, it purrs along with few surprises.
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Old 04-11-2014, 01:10 PM   #37
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Re: Reman tranny & Rebuilt Engine Replacement.

UPDATE: 375K MILES REACHED ... a little work needed!
.
I guess we shouldn't be surprised that a little service was required recently. Had some leakage on the lower intake manifold and the front cover... so both were replaced, along with front struts, lower control arm, harmonic balancer ... etc, etc. The harmonic balancer had not yet slipped, but the rubber was showing a number of cracks so I was a bit afraid of it.

To get access to the front engine cover, the sub frame was lowered a bit onto two 4x4 wooden beams. This is with the front struts, wheels, rotors, etc .. removed. The exhaust was unfastened as was the steering. Then the sub frame was moved over using Windstar jack. This provided enough room to do all replacements, including using torque wrenches. I used Permatex #2 on both sides of gasket .. hopefully this will help stop leakage.

The upper was cleaned thoroughly, as was the inlet passages into the heads. I use twisted paper towels pushed down into passage to prevent gunk from reaching combustion chamber. Thin wire wrapped around the shop towels guaranteed their retrieval. Metal erosion was seen around coolant ports on the lower ... so extra Permatex Gray was used around these ports. The synchronizer was oiled. All the injectors were work bench cleaned. Plugs, wires, coil were renewed.

Upon start-up the engine did not run that well. A compression test was taken ...180:170:160:178:172:172... so no problem there. Then a induction type timing light was used to check firing ... pretty erratic ... so it was then a new crank position sensor was installed. The new harmonic balancer did not have the massive toothed-wheel the original one did, so this probably affected sensor performance. With new sensor, the timing light test showed all to be well.

Now it purrs again ... smooth and powerful.
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Old 08-20-2015, 01:04 PM   #38
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Re: Reman tranny & Rebuilt Engine Replacement.

Update ... 416600 miles reached ... that's 200k miles on reman tranny and "refreshed/over-hauled" engine ... Aug 2015.
.
There's probably fewer readers here to care these days. But I still see many Windstars on the road. I have been happy with mine. It now runs well and even tows a heavy trailer with little effort. It needs some little work ... the ac needs some attention ... the steering wheel air bag needs replacement ... the driver's seat fore-aft doesn't anymore; but at $600 for replacement, it stays "as is". Happy with engine work. Happy with Ford reman tranny.
.
I may try to reach 500k miles. However, the wife wants a new vehicle ... so time will tell.
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Old 08-22-2015, 03:14 PM   #39
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Re: Reman tranny & Rebuilt Engine Replacement.

WOW... time does go fast... Congrats on a job well done, hope you reach 600K on it! I remember reading your post and freaking out since everybody kept saying this trannys had a 100,000 mile lifespan on them. I kept telling my wife I wanted to ged rid of ours before that milestone. We stopped taking it on long drives and was treated as the secodary vehicle.
Well, our 2000 Winnie is now my daily driver... lost the Malibu on a head on collision back in Feb and she's still going, true that I drive it like grandma and always pray it stays together everytime I get on the seat! LOL
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Old 08-24-2015, 10:44 AM   #40
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Re: Reman tranny & Rebuilt Engine Replacement.

We're at 160K on ours but it gets used mostly for short trips. It takes a little work to keep running (last weekend was the passenger window motor -- a pretty common repair) but boy, the insurance costs practically nothing these days and being almost 14 years old, I don't care if the dogs mess it up or drool all over the place. Heck, the left quad seat has been out for over a year thanks to the new giant beast the wife brought home. That 88 lb rescue collie occupies that space regularly since it's the only thing she'll fit in. I even discovered the windstars at the junkyard with a bench seat have 2 covers for the slots for the right side mounting holes, so I pillaged 2 vans and got 4 covers for the holes so paws don't get stuck in there now (which would generate yet another endless vet bill.) Here's to hoping for another 160K out of this baby!

Oh, and still original transmission. I had some shudder last spring but it was just old fluid. Changed about 7 quarts of fluid, and it went right back to it's old form.
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Old 08-24-2015, 07:49 PM   #41
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Re: Reman tranny & Rebuilt Engine Replacement.

Good job. Your mileage achievement shows these are good vehicles and that you've taken good care of yours. We're putting miles on the DIY rebuilds that was completed last summer. It just turned 333,333 total miles, with about 25k on the rebuilds. Everything is OK so far, although I need to work on the front suspension due to torque steer, partially from wear on the knuckles caused by loose pinch bolts on the lower control arms.
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Old 08-24-2015, 08:51 PM   #42
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Re: Reman tranny & Rebuilt Engine Replacement.

Have your lower control arms been replaced or re-bushed? They take a terrible beating.
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Old 08-28-2015, 07:26 PM   #43
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Re: Reman tranny & Rebuilt Engine Replacement.

I've replace the arms at least once each. I think the last time was a bunch of years ago. I've had the knuckles (aka spindle) off a few times since then for changing bearings, changing the struts, working on the transmission, etc.

I can pry on the bottom of the knuckle (while attached to the lower control arm/ball joint pin) and see the pin moving up/down in the knuckle. This is despite maximum torque on the pinch bolt. When the knuckle is removed from the pin you can feel that the hourglass shape of the pin has been worn into the inside of the hole in the knuckle. Consequently it takes a lot of spreading of pinch to get the pin out of the knuckle.

I think this condition started many years ago when the inside faces of the pinch were "dimpled" when a chisel was used to spread the pinch open. This kept the pinch from closing tightly on the pin, and the wear has been occurring since then. I eventually removed the dimple with a thin file, but the damage was already done.

I think this design makes it very difficult to tell when the pinch is tight on the pin, so I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often, let alone failure of the knuckle due to cracks in the pinch zone.

The ball joints seem OK and I didn't notice any issues with the bushings where it attaches to the subframe.
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Old 08-29-2015, 01:35 PM   #44
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Re: Reman tranny & Rebuilt Engine Replacement.

Do you suppose a 3/4 wrap of shim "paper" brass would help?
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Old 08-29-2015, 02:46 PM   #45
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Re: Reman tranny & Rebuilt Engine Replacement.

I don't imagine it would cost too terribly much to grab replacements from a junkyard. I can't get the balljoint stud to move on mine half the time even with the bolt OUT let alone with it in. heh.

I went for a tail light and upper cowl (I got a little too rough with the ice scraper last winter and basically destroyed it... oops) and also picked up some covers for the seat holes where the second row seats go so I can remove one for the giant dogs and keep dog paws from getting stuck in there. You can find all kinds of cool stuff at the junk yard.
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