1996 E-350 Shuttle Bus speedometer bouncing

FULLMETALJOEY

MEMBER
1996 FORD E-SERIES VAN

Hi, I have a 1996 Ford E-350 351 v-8 gas Champion Shuttle bus dually. My bands tour vehicle. It has a few issues and has been to many mechanics and shops with no site of being fixed.

speedometer bounces 10-20mph around the range you're driving at all speeds. The cruise control also doesn't work. Once or twice a few years ago it worked correctly for a few minutes and I was shocked and tried the cruise and it worked fine until speed-o skipped again then cruise fluctuated with speed-o. Someone put a new rear end sensor and we installed a brand new ecm/pcm? New computer. No help
It also stalls in reverse. You can hear the idle drop from park to drive, and raises in neutral. When put in reverse idle drops a lot and we usually have a trailer of band gear, if we try to back at all while turning or pressing brakes (power steering and brakes drawing power away from motor) she stalls. Or up any sort of incline she stalls. My uncle (diesel mechanic at bus garage) cleaned the intakes and did a full tune up and it got a little better. Still stalls horribly though. Someone suggested torque converter. Someone else shot that idea down?

Thanks so much for your help and input. My band and I really appreciate it! -Joey

1 Reply

FLEXY5

MECHANIC
512 POSTS

I'll try to anwer all your questions. The problem with not being able to read codes may be due to a blown fuse. Ford was bright enough to often put the DLC (Data Link Connector) on the same fuse as the cig lighter. Try that solution and see what happens.

Trans stall out may be due to a loose trans filter. Ford had a TSB out about that for a long time. It only stalls in reverse because reverse demands the most fluid pressure.

I cannot remember if the 96 trans has a shaft driven sensor on the rear of trans. It sounds like it might, because those sensors have a nylon gear on the inside. The nylon occasionally wears out either on the shaft or on the sensor (usually the sensor). This causes bouncing at the speedo end.
Good luck.