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Thanks Bill. What I am starting to think is that the 5 speed for sure and most likely the 4 speed are not heavy enough for 450\550's. I can go through the list of problems with the tranny's and the excuses we are getting from Ford, but I truly believe this is where the issue is. Our 2 350\7.3\4 speeds have not had any problems other than the one I referred to earlier in this thread. My guess is these tranny's are fine for exactly that.
Our '05 550 went a whole 440 miles, 10 hours plowing and the tranny was cracked. The 4WD shift lever wouldn't stay engaged in 4WD. The 'new and improved' part was worse than the original.
Our '04 550 went 15K miles before the case cracked. This was our fault (supposedly) because we are not coming to a complete stop when shifting forward\reverse and vice versa while plowing. There's a couple problems with this theory: #1 they are wrong because the operator has more experience than anyone else in our company and is not abusing this truck; #2 The service tech told me that there is a built in electronic delay to prevent this from happening when there is any movement sensed on the output shaft; #3 This is the fourth time that truck has been in for 'shudder' when shifting into reverse. I found out on another forum that the Ford hotline told a tech that the reason the snap ring that is causing all these problems was changed in late '04 and '05 was to eliminate 'shudder' when shifting. Sound familiar??
I've spoken with our sales rep and the service advisor and have a bunch of info printed off for the service manager. Supposedly they are going to speak with their zone rep to see what can be done. My thought at this time is someone is going to provide me with a very long extended warranty on these truck as soon as they get a decent transmission in these things.
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