I had been waiting to fix my explorer for a long time. The "previous owner" I will call him knowingly sold me a vehicle with a bad tranny without disclosing it... long story. To get to the important part, it had the common 2/3 shift flare. I dropped the pan, filter, and valve body, making sure to use a template and put the bolts where they go. Then i took the valve body to the work bench and replaced the gasket, which was surprisingly not blown. After more looking around, I realized the previous owner had already had the fix done. I tightened the EPC 1/4 turn and reassembled the tranny. When i started it, it was stuck in first gear. PRN21 all went forward (park just revved a bit due to the park lockout.)

I tore it back apart and found that the plunger on the side of the valve body was stuck in the 1st gear position. I pushed it back out and cleaned it up so it moved freely. Then I reassembled the tranny using new fluid again.

After that the tranny was stuck in neutal. I dropped the pan again today, and tightened the valve body bolts and made sure my solenoids are tight. Filled it back up slowly with the engine running. It shifted into gear for a second (tried to go forward while it was in reverse though). Then it was again stuck in neutral in all the gears again.

Any ideas? Im going crazy here!

 

Not aligning the manual valve when installing the valve body can cause this kind of problem.

Sometimes it will bind on the linkage and could bend or break. This valve must move freely in its bore and must be connected to the linkage in the right spot.

Sometimes adjusting the EPC solnoid can cause a hard downshift when coming to a stop. Sometimes the EPC wont adjust back and would have to be replaced. I have done it a few times and I wasn't happy with it and or the customer complained and had to replace the solenoid.

When you dropped the pan the second time and tightened the valve body bolts where they loose?

 

Thank you for the pic!! I misunderstood the linkage on that plunger. I will try again and post back with results but that picture REALLY helped me!