HELP NEEDED ASAP! Tranny open in the driveway, mystery parts found!!

[CanukGMC]

I'm changing my tranny fluid\filter on an 89 f150 lariat 302 4x4 4spd auto. I dropped the pan and found this in the bottom:





Wtf is it??? I can't figure out where it was as it doesn't seem to fit anywhere! Help!

[Torch]

Well, it looks like some kind of piston or valve, I checked on Autozone.com, it appears that you have an AOD4 transmission. I checked through http://www.bulkpart.com but couldn't find any part kits that had any parts that looked like that, but admittedly they didn't have pictures of all of the parts.

If your truck was running fine and shifted the way it was supposed to through all the gears I would not worry about the "Mystery Part", someone may have dropped down your filler tube as a joke that never played out like they thought it would.

Or maybe now is the joke, you with a mystery part :-)

But, if your truck wasn't shifting right which is why you decided to change the fluid now would be the time to start researching what that part is. I would start with the Ford Service Garage and have them dig through their tranny books, or go to a tranny shop that has been around a long time they should know where it goes or if it even belongs to your tranny.

[CanukGMC]

Originally Posted by Torch

Well, it looks like some kind of piston or valve, I checked on Autozone.com, it appears that you have an AOD4 transmission. I checked through http://www.bulkpart.com but couldn't find any part kits that had any parts that looked like that, but admittedly they didn't have pictures of all of the parts.

If your truck was running fine and shifted the way it was supposed to through all the gears I would not worry about the "Mystery Part", someone may have dropped down your filler tube as a joke that never played out like they thought it would.

Or maybe now is the joke, you with a mystery part :-)

But, if your truck wasn't shifting right which is why you decided to change the fluid now would be the time to start researching what that part is. I would start with the Ford Service Garage and have them dig through their tranny books, or go to a tranny shop that has been around a long time they should know where it goes or if it even belongs to your tranny.

Thanks for the reply, I re-assembled everything before it got dark and even took it for a test drive. It seems to drive alright, it shifts smoother than before with the new fluid\filter, once in a while I get a harder\stiff shift but I'm sure that has to do with it being an 800$ truck and 209k on the odo so I'm not overly worried about it. My main concern now is finding some tubing to pull that extra fluid out lol.

PS Hayes was wrong about the torque specs on the tranny pan bolts too, I stripped one and a half (second one I'm not sure if it stripped or not) of the bolts before I just used my arm and a normal ratchet as the torque wrench. Thanks hayes!

[airboatphil]

No need to worry...what you are looking at is the assembly line "plug off" to keep debris out of the tranny until the person that installs the dipstick tube installs it....at the factory level they just push this piece into the pan and continue on with the day's work.....I can't tell you how many people have asked about that plug on the first filter change .....

[CanukGMC]

Originally Posted by airboatphil

No need to worry...what you are looking at is the assembly line "plug off" to keep debris out of the tranny until the person that installs the dipstick tube installs it....at the factory level they just push this piece into the pan and continue on with the day's work.....I can't tell you how many people have asked about that plug on the first filter change .....

Awesome, great info. It looked like some kind of "plug", good to know it wasn't something important.