Noises During Shifting problems of the 2003 Ford F-150

I have a 2003 Ford f150 pickup, v6, 5-speed manual transmission. My warranty expired at 36,000 miles and my clutch slave cylinder failed at 37,000 miles. After contacting the dealership and telling them about the problem and asking them if they would cover the part since it had failed prematurely, and they answered "no". I took it to a private shop and had the slave cylinder replaced. The day after I got it back I periodically heard strange noises coming from the transmission. I took it back into the shop that replaced my slave cylinder. Upon observation they found nothing. After driving it for two more days the problem was extremely evident by the noises that were constant whenever I shifted as well as in neutral. I took it to a reputable transmission shop and told the shop that I wanted to be there when the transmission was opened up. I was present when they opened up the transmission. As they pulled the transmission apart, they found mangled thin metal debris, some pieces as large as my thumbnail. After taking the entire transmission apart and inspecting all bearings and all other parts, they found that the pieces were a foreign material to the transmission. They did not come from any part of the transmission. One of these pieces found its way between the gears on the counter shaft and broke one of the teeth, explaining the noise. So, in short, we are currently having the transmission rebuilt at a cost of $1800. 00 on a vehicle with only 37,000 miles on it.

Within a few thousand miles of purchase, we began noticing a sporadic grating noise from the rear end. More distubing is the hard shifting between 1st and 2nd gears that is also sporadic. The shifting problem happens on long trips of 150 miles or more. It will usually happen about once a day but of course we never know when. The grating noise is less frequent and can happen anytime. Our vehicle is currently at the dealership for a fourth visit for these problems. Ford has not been able to replicate the grating and hard shifting which makes sense but at the same time we are stuck with a vehicle that has not provided new truck performance. Since the problem has become more frequent, it will probably lead to transmission failure once it is out of warranty. I have considered selling it but that would be unethical since the next person would eventually experience the same problems. Ford needs to step up and replace the transmission. There is one other similar complaint in the data base.