I have put 200,000 plus on 2 ford trucks, 1 e350 van and all needed trans serv.
more than once. I will still by ford but will always maint. serpentine belts and trans. at or b/4 required. I do think you found the achilles heal of the otherwise beefey ford product. I can tell you that front end rebuilds also come by the 100,000 miles.

Three trannys in mine ...finally got rid of it.

Trans #1 0-33,000
Trans #2 33,000-74,000
Trans #3 -74,000-~78,000 when I sold it

Went back to Chevy...,.note my by line!

innthered...

Put the biggest Hayden or equiv tans cooler on it and a good temp gauge and they live if you keep them out of the red (no pun) this is what I have heard

Thanks for all the input everybody. I think i'll at least look into a new converter and possibly put a shift kit in it as long as the tranny is out of it. The thing seems to be fine to me. No slippage or weird shifting.

turbo, come on, tell the truth. You hammer on the thing pulling a 20,000# trailer five days a week and run the mud bogs on weekends, right? I think most people have good luck with their vehicles. The ones who have problems such as three trannys in 78,000 miles have to be doing something the truck was never intended to do. I'm not saying there are no lemons, but how did you get three? Not trying to piss you or anybody else off, just trying to get the straight poop on the truck.

try giving the engine a little throttle with the trans in drive & your foot on the brake & see if the rattle sound goes away or diminishes, this increases line pressure & stops the clutches from rattling, if it does your converter is the problem. try changing all the trans fluid
including whats in the converter. if you catch it early that usually works. pdq performance
sells a valve that raises line pressure that works great.the rattle noise increases gradually
so alot of people don't notice it. i see lots of these come through the dealership usally with high mileage. good luck mike

Mine went at 35,600 F-250 4x4 2001