97 AXOD Trans. Problem

I have a 1997 Taurus. I have owned the car for 5 months. Since we got the car, when I first take off in the morning the car does not want to shift into second gear. After a horsing the engine a little bit, it shifts and is fine for the rest of the day. I figured I would first try changing the filter and gasket. I went to Autozone and got the part, boy was I suprised when i went to put the new gasket on and it didnt fit. Autozone told me (which I dont believe is true) that the AXOD transmission wasnt been in a Taurus since 1995. Is this true? My Transmission pan clearly says AXOD on the bottom. Anyways, changing the filter and gasket hasnt helped. Sorry for such a long post. Any help would be appreciated since I dont want to replace the transmission. Thanks.

yes, you have an AX4S, it has a different pan than the old AXOD. Have you checked your fluid level?

Also, the AX4S was crap, there's not much suprise that you're having problems.

My transmission pan has 19 bolts, the AX4S has 17 bolts. Do you suppose that the transimmsion was replaced with a transmission from and older Taurus. Autozone swears that Ford did not make a transmission with 19 bolts for 1996+ Taurus'. I have checked the fluid level many times. I was thinking the problem may be one of the solenoids in the transmission. What do you think?

Hi,
I am starting having the same problem in my 1999 Taurus - in the morning, it won't upshift to second gear (the engine is revving up to 3-4 000 RPM). After several minutes, the problem goes away and is fine for the day.

Any clues what this might be? Does the tranny need rebuilding?

Thanks,
Mark

I have a 1997 Taurus. I have owned the car for 5 months. Since we got the car, when I first take off in the morning the car does not want to shift into second gear. After a horsing the engine a little bit, it shifts and is fine for the rest of the day. I figured I would first try changing the filter and gasket. I went to Autozone and got the part, boy was I suprised when i went to put the new gasket on and it didnt fit. Autozone told me (which I dont believe is true) that the AXOD transmission wasnt been in a Taurus since 1995. Is this true? My Transmission pan clearly says AXOD on the bottom. Anyways, changing the filter and gasket hasnt helped. Sorry for such a long post. Any help would be appreciated since I dont want to replace the transmission. Thanks.

A clue is that the transmission is electronically controlled and looks for information from various sensors before shifting. Yours may or may not be operating properly but it operates differently from the old vacuum/centrifugal units of old.

its possible that your trans was replaced with an AXOD-E, you might want to try that gasket, I think it might work on early vulcan tauri.