H&S and Transmission question

[jdkinzenbaw]

All,

I have a Black Maxx installed on my truck. Works great, plenty of power, though I have notice the transmission has had an occasional issue since I installed it.

It tows fine, works fine, but a couple of things...
1) Sometimes it upshifts too quickly to sixth - sometimes going up a steep hill it jumps to sixth gear and starts lugging. I have to accelerate a little to make it downshift, or use the shifter buttons to force back down into fifth.

2) The transmission sometimes forgets to go into gear... on 3 or 4 occasions now, I'll put the transmission in reverse, and it take a few seconds or sometimes cycling through Park to get it to go. Not a big deal - maybe 3 or 4 times in the 10 months or so I've had the chip in.

But last night, I started the truck, pulled out of my driveway, and the truck slipped out of gear, or something... I started to accelerate slowly, and it tried to shift to second, and didn't. It was like holding the clutch down in a manual... the engine just revved. I slowed down and stopped, shifted to neutral and back again, and then it worked fine, but it made me nervous. I thought I smelled something odd, then realized it was the neighbor burning his garbage.

Anyway... I have 36,000 miles on the truck, and this is the first Ford I've owned. Otherwise I've towed like crazy with it... fifth wheel toyhauler, gooseneck trailer with skid loader, light trailers, big trailers, you name it.

I drove it to work today and it ran just fine. First thing I'll do when I get home tonight is to upload the latest H&S Updates to the software. I have the EGR delete and the H&S exhaust, so I can't really run the truck very long without the chip in place to do any kind of long-term testing.

Have any of you seen this? I hope it's not a major tranny problem, but I'm thinking it could just be the computer getting confused as to the gear assignments because of the chip. Hoping I can just update the H&S chip software and get it working again.

Any experiences or comments that may help me understand this? All other maintenance has been followed by the book, performed by the dealer (who is fascinated by the mods I've done, incidentally. They're helpful!)

[jdkinzenbaw]

No comments?? Not even from H&S Tech?

[lhsnbsaoa]

i have also noticed slight occasional slipping on my 08. i am interested to see what we come up with on this one. hopefully H&S will comment on this

[jdkinzenbaw]

I'm hoping so too...

[6.0L Stroker]

I just noticed an issue the other night like you said about pushing the clutch in. My truck went from second and instead of third it went to first then engine revved way up. I was light acceleration. But it was strange. I let off and it shift back up and worked fine all the way home. Have had my mini maxx on for about 3,000 miles now. I'm at 5,600 now. Hopefully nothin major.


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[jdkinzenbaw]

That sounds exactly like what happened to me then. Hmmm... it happened to me again last night when I left my farm.

I need to get the latest H&S updates so I can see if it's the programming affecting it.

[6.0L Stroker]

I have 6.7.17. I don't know if they have another one out yet but it seemed strange. You have any pics of your truck btw? It looks burgundy or bronze from your profile pic. Is it lifted any?


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[darren32]

I am surprised you like the HS trans tune for towing. I did not (35' 13,000 lb toy hauler). IMHO it locks the TC way to early for towing and is always in too high of a gear. Bucks like crazy. I switched back to stock trans tune and am waiting for something better from HS.

[jdkinzenbaw]

Well, I tow the same size toyhauler (roughly) and sometimes it seems like it's running too high of a gear. I usually just use the shifter lever buttons to force it to run in 5th. I typically tow around 70mph, or less, on the interstate.

Maybe I should clarify... is the transmission tune something separate from my Black Maxx tune? I was thinking the tune I had only changes the engine tuning, not the transmission.?? I figured the changes in the transmission were just due to the extra power provided by the chip.

Can someone clarify what exactly the Black Maxx tune does to the transmission, if anything?

[darren32]

When you install the download it asks you "do you want to tune the transmission" If you said YES it is HS trans tune, if you said no it is factory trans tune. To go back to stock trans tune just return the truck to stock then re load only the engine tune and say no to the trans tune.

Thanks