1990 Ford F150 questions

Hi,
I have a couple questions on a 1990 Ford F150 straight 6 with auto
transmission. Two questions

1. how do I drain/flush/change the transmission fluid. Is it as
simple as removing a bolt from the tranny, draining, and refilling?
Also, presume I need a new tranny filter too? And how many quarts
trans fluid does this take?

2. I am getting a grinding, vibrating sound when turning the wheel to
the left when in motion, going through a low speed left turn. Very
distinct....almost a buzzing sound, very loud. Any idea what this
could be? Brakes? tie rod? Does not do it all the time, just once
in a while. It's loud enough to have me concerned...the whole truck
vibrates.

Thanks.

#1 You need to drain fluid from the torque convertor as well. On a
Ford, there should be a rubber access plug along the bottom (between the
engine and tranny) that you remove, then turn over the engine by "hand"
(so to speak) using a breaker bar on the crankshaft bolt, rotating the
engine CCW until you can see the plumbers bolt on the TC though the
hole. Remove this bolt to drain the fluid out of the TC. This will
drain (approx.) the other half of the fluid from the tranny. As for how
much fluid, I never had a straight six, but for my V-8's (AOD and E4OD),
they took around 14-16 qts (of course you should change the filter as
well). I add 9-10 qts. at first then run the engine for about 20
seconds (to work the fluid into the tranny), then shut it down and added
the remainder of the fluid. Start the car again, put your foot on the
brake and shift it through the gears. If everything seems OK, then
drive it around the block.

#2 If you're turning left and the noise is from the right, it's a bad
wheel bearing on the RIGHT side. If you hear noise from the left while
turning left, then I'm not sure what that is. If it's bad enough to
cause a vibration, you (or a mechanic) should be able to figure this
out. You could try lifting the entire front end and set it on jack
stands, then wiggle everything in sight. In general, to test for bad
wheel bearings grab each tire/wheel at the top/bottom and wiggle, any
slop is likely a bad wheel bearing. Next, wiggle them left/right, that
should find bad tie rods.

-PapaRick

---------------------------------------------------------------------


papadad wrote:

> Hi,
> I have a couple questions on a 1990 Ford F150 straight 6 with auto
> transmission. Two questions
>
> 1. how do I drain/flush/change the transmission fluid. Is it as
> simple as removing a bolt from the tranny, draining, and refilling?
> Also, presume I need a new tranny filter too? And how many quarts
> trans fluid does this take?
>
> 2. I am getting a grinding, vibrating sound when turning the wheel to
> the left when in motion, going through a low speed left turn. Very
> distinct....almost a buzzing sound, very loud. Any idea what this
> could be? Brakes? tie rod? Does not do it all the time, just once
> in a while. It's loud enough to have me concerned...the whole truck
> vibrates.
>
> Thanks.
>