The car is my wifes 97 Taurus GL with 3.0 Vulcan and AX4N trans. We bought it with 50,000 miles in back in 99. Car has been basicaly trouble free other than the fuel pump. I do all routine maint..and trans filter and fluid every year.
Fast forward to last Sunday.....current milage 178,000 miles seemed to have been idling just a touch rough when cold lately(last few months) and has felt a bit sluggish...I just figured the age was showing....... So on my way back form church the car jerked and then the oil light came on..... seemed to be running fine...so I stop and check everything out..all was normal but the light. No pecks ...knocks....nothing...but smooth as normal when driving. I drove the car on home 5-6 miles and nothing but that light.. I figured maby the sending unit had malfunctioned...but I could not explain the jerk I had felt. I got home turned it off and started back but nothing seemed wrong but the oil light. I parked it and ate breakfast came back 30 min's later and hooked my Innova Can scan up and it kicked up cam sensor.... I cleared the codes and fired it up....lifter clack...shut it directly off. I pulled the syncro assembly and 3 teeth were gone and the other like a knife edge ready to go any time. The bushings had failed horribly and caused the syncro gear to eat itself up over time little by little... It was oiling but must have been just enough for survival.THE CAR NEVER MADE ANY NOISE PRIOR.....my wife would have noticed it...she is a hypochondriac of automobiles...lol.
I drained the oil and hardly anything detectible was in the oil.....I poured a few qts of cheap oil down thru the syncro hole to flush anything if it was there. I was not goin to pull the pan with nothing showing in the oil. I figure it had slowly ate itself away between oil changes for a long while that is why I never noticed anything at oil changes...small particals. I primed the oil pump with my ole trusty 351W dizzy shaft I use for priming my stroked 408 in my drag car since they are the same hex size on the oil pump shaft. Dropped a new syncro assembly with assembly lube on the syncro gear for breaking in and fired it up. It had a faint lifter peck for 30 seconds and then all was normal....but the rough idle was gone completly and the car feels like it gained throttle response.. We have put over 500 miles on the car this week and these were on a 300 mile and the other 200 mile trip. GOD blessed us and the car is fine as of now. If it was goin to fail those long 70mph interstate trips would have showed it I think.
I just rebuilt a salvaged 98 Taurus for my mother and shes been driving it for a few weeks. It has 169,000 on a Vulcan. It to had a slight idle issue when cold but NO NOISE and was feeeling a bit sluggish also. Needless to say I after what happend with the 97, I got a syncro assembly for the 98 cause I know whats next...LOL The bushings where toast in that syncro also.....but the gear was not worn badly yet. After replacing the unit the idle is 100% better and it to has better throttle response.
Moral of story.....the Vulcan is a great reliable engine and mostly trouble free but that syncro assembly is a critical(oiling system depends on it ) part that should be replaced at least by the 100,00 mile mark. Its a 20-30 min job start to finish. Im going to pull mine back out in a coulple of thousand miles just to see how it looks....Im curious now. Thats it in a nut shell......
Fast forward to last Sunday.....current milage 178,000 miles seemed to have been idling just a touch rough when cold lately(last few months) and has felt a bit sluggish...I just figured the age was showing....... So on my way back form church the car jerked and then the oil light came on..... seemed to be running fine...so I stop and check everything out..all was normal but the light. No pecks ...knocks....nothing...but smooth as normal when driving. I drove the car on home 5-6 miles and nothing but that light.. I figured maby the sending unit had malfunctioned...but I could not explain the jerk I had felt. I got home turned it off and started back but nothing seemed wrong but the oil light. I parked it and ate breakfast came back 30 min's later and hooked my Innova Can scan up and it kicked up cam sensor.... I cleared the codes and fired it up....lifter clack...shut it directly off. I pulled the syncro assembly and 3 teeth were gone and the other like a knife edge ready to go any time. The bushings had failed horribly and caused the syncro gear to eat itself up over time little by little... It was oiling but must have been just enough for survival.THE CAR NEVER MADE ANY NOISE PRIOR.....my wife would have noticed it...she is a hypochondriac of automobiles...lol.
I drained the oil and hardly anything detectible was in the oil.....I poured a few qts of cheap oil down thru the syncro hole to flush anything if it was there. I was not goin to pull the pan with nothing showing in the oil. I figure it had slowly ate itself away between oil changes for a long while that is why I never noticed anything at oil changes...small particals. I primed the oil pump with my ole trusty 351W dizzy shaft I use for priming my stroked 408 in my drag car since they are the same hex size on the oil pump shaft. Dropped a new syncro assembly with assembly lube on the syncro gear for breaking in and fired it up. It had a faint lifter peck for 30 seconds and then all was normal....but the rough idle was gone completly and the car feels like it gained throttle response.. We have put over 500 miles on the car this week and these were on a 300 mile and the other 200 mile trip. GOD blessed us and the car is fine as of now. If it was goin to fail those long 70mph interstate trips would have showed it I think.
I just rebuilt a salvaged 98 Taurus for my mother and shes been driving it for a few weeks. It has 169,000 on a Vulcan. It to had a slight idle issue when cold but NO NOISE and was feeeling a bit sluggish also. Needless to say I after what happend with the 97, I got a syncro assembly for the 98 cause I know whats next...LOL The bushings where toast in that syncro also.....but the gear was not worn badly yet. After replacing the unit the idle is 100% better and it to has better throttle response.
Moral of story.....the Vulcan is a great reliable engine and mostly trouble free but that syncro assembly is a critical(oiling system depends on it ) part that should be replaced at least by the 100,00 mile mark. Its a 20-30 min job start to finish. Im going to pull mine back out in a coulple of thousand miles just to see how it looks....Im curious now. Thats it in a nut shell......