I have a 2006 Ford e_450 21 Passenger Shuttle Bus with a 6.0L Powerstroke. I bought it used and the seller told me that the motor and transmission had been changed. He told me the motor only had 90,000 miles on it but I do not know what year the new motor is or what it came out of. The seller had his own very busy shop and maintained over 400 buses for the Brooklyn NY school system as well as several of these shuttle buses for the city. I shopped for a bus like this for quite a while before deciding on which one to purchase and it wasn't the vehicle so much as a seller with some integrity that I was shopping for. After I had convinced myself that I was dealing with a man of integrity I flew from Charlotte, NC to Brooklyn NY to inspect the bus and after a short test drive I decided to go through with the purchase. I should have driven it more than I did but I was comfortable enough with the seller to go through with the purchase. I failed to drive the bus long enough for it to over heat if it was going to and I didn't want to waste the sellers time as he was extremely busy. After purchasing and sitting at the DMV all day waiting on a temporary tag so I could drive it back to North Carolina I was on my way and it was starting to get dark. I got about 35 miles away from his shop when the bus was just starting to get up to operating temperature and then the transmission began to get a little sluggish and as I was approaching one of those steep inclines on a bridge I noticed it was beginning to slip a little. At the foot of the bridge I pulled over and looked at the transmission and noticed just a small leak coming from the top side of the housing. I decided that it would be best to call the seller and tell him that I was not comfortable with the transmission and explained the problem. He got my location and brought his best mechanic to take a look. The mechanic wanted to take it back to the shop for further analysis and they put me up in a hotel on Coney Island until the next day. After the mechanic analyzed it he suggested that a new transmission be installed and so I was sent back to the hotel where I waited until the next day for the new transmission to be delivered. The next day the sellers son picked me up and took me to the shop where I witnessed the delivery and uncrating of the new transmission and then I watched it as it was installed. With my new transmission installed I confidently left the shop for my trip back home to NC. I stopped just north of Washington DC and got a room so I could get some rest and drive safely the rest of the way home the next day. Now I am about 4 days into this trip and even though the seller toted most of my expenses, I was running out of time and money so I was eager to get an early start. I left the hotel just in time to get in the rush our traffic on the way to work in Washington DC. That was an experience all in its own. After about 30 to 40 minutes in rush hour traffic the new transmission started doing the exact same thing as the one I had just replaced and I was in a stretch of road that was a 22 mile long construction zone with no emergency lanes and in the busiest interstate through DC when the transmission overheated and quit turning. I had already burned it completely up so I just called the troopers and a tow truck and let it cool off until I could bump it down the road 100 ft at a time until I could get into an emergency lane. I hope I didn't break any rules with this long story and I only put it all in here because there might be something I am not thinking about that some of you might know to tell me. I am going to get down to the nuts and bolts in my next post and see if there is anyone here that can give me some advice.

 

Again I apologize for the drawn out story above, this post is much more to the point. I have spent a lot of money on this bus and almost everything has been repaired or replaced. When I got it the motor had been replaced and I do not know what year this new motor is. The transmission has also been replaced. First the seller replaced the motor and the transmission and I learned that his shop was under 20 ft of water during a hurricane that struck Coney Island where his shop is. The seller replaced the transmission twice. Once after the flood and once as a contingency to the sale when I purchased it and I witnessed that one being installed. I did not learn of the flood until well after I purchased it. It is a 2006 Ford e_450 6.0L Powerstroke but as stated I cannot vouch for the year of the new motor. I have had three re-manufactured transmissions installed in this bus and the same problem persist so I am assuming that the PCM needs replaced. I had it diagnosed at a reputable transmission shop and they told me that the code that came back was a code indicating that the neutral switch, a part that on this transmission is inside the housing and allowed the motor to start when it neutral or park position. We did that twice and the same code persist. After learning about the flood and doing some research I assumed that the PCM needed replaced. Is there anything else I need to look for and is there a definitive way to determine exactly what the problem is or if in fact it needs a new PCM?