Hey There Fellow Ford Folks,

Well, I got a little tranny prob with my '95 Explorer. Overdrive light has been flashing for a year now. Yeah, I know I should have had it looked at when it first started happening, but you know how it goes, no dinero, no fixing. Anyways, my question is does anyone know where I can get the docs on my tranny so I can rebuild it, but when I rebuild it I want to make better than it was. I want more torque and I want more horsepower out of it because I'm going to put a SuperCharger on as well. Ya see, the good ol' Explorer is paid off now and I want to start turning it into my play toy because I'm going to buy an F250 SuperDuty CrewCab 4x4 Lariet with the PowerStroke Diesel next and I need something that can haul everything I need to haul until then. So if anyone out there can help me out I sure would appreciate it. The Explorer is still driveable, matter of fact I drive it every day, but it doesn't shift right from 2nd to 3rd. It'll wind out the motor until I let off the gas or hangs at 5000 rpms if I don't let of the gas sooner and then I have to let off the gas for it to shift. After that, it shifts fine except when I try to pass someone on the highway and then it hangs again. I know that the tranny needs work, but I figured since it has to be worked on anyway that I should go all out since I'm going to have it torn apart anyways unless there is a quick fix until I get my truck. Any ideas on what is wrong with the tranny? Thanks for any ideas.

FixNit
'95 Ford Explorer XLT 4-Door 4x2

 

You need a book on your specific model tranny. You can find/order them at any bookstore. Try an auto parts store, too. They could point you in the right direction.

 

You didn't mention what transmission you have. Typically, you can buy a kit to rebuild any transmission, However, that obviously doesn't mean the all parts will be state of the art.

I have a 4R70W tranny in my Mountaineer. There is substantial information on the 4R70W and what mods should be done to jack up the overall performance on the TTCoA Board. Check out this link: http://tccoa.com/articles/tranny/index.html If you don't have this tranny, keep looking for similar type of information.

Good luck

 

Thanks. The problem is I don't know what tranny I have. What's the best way to find out. Crawl under the Explorer and look for a model number somewhere on the tranny or use the VIN to find out? Thanks for anymore help that anyone can offer.

 

Hello,

If you have a 5.0 it is a 4R70W, if you have a 4.0 it is a 4R55E. Pull the codes. you might have a blown valve body gasket or a broken band I can't remember the exact sequence of what comes on and off at that point right now. Blown gasket is a easy fix, broken band means overhaul. Ford also had trouble with the low and intermediate servos getting hard and causing miss shifts. another easy fix. You can drop the trans pan and look in it to see if the is any debris in it. let us know what you find.

Jim

 

I've got the 4.0L V6 so I guess I have the 4R55E. I know my tranny has the push button at the end of the gear shift to engage and disengage the OD. I had the tranny flush a month or two ago and when they dropped the pan it had a couple of metal pieces about the size of a marker. They didn't look broken, but neither the shop nor I knew what they went to. Needless to say I need to get a book on my tranny so I can find out what those 2 pieces of metal went to and figure out whether I'm going to be able to overhaul this tranny myself or not. What I was thinking about doing was just buying another tranny and keeping the old one to overhaul and make better and then pull the new one out and put my newly modified rebuilt one back in. Any thoughts of what I should do would be much appreciated. Thanks.

FixNit

 

was it acting up before the service?

 

Yep, that's why I had it serviced. I was hoping that would fix the problem, but it didn't. From what I'm seeing on the forum it looks like this happens alot with Explorers. I also have about 160,000 miles on the tranny as well. So I can't complain too much. I'm the second owner and this is the only major problem I have had with it.

 

You're right. 160,000 miles, you can't expect a tranny to go longer than that without an overhaul.

 

Actually I beg to differ, I have 5 explorers in my family, an 94 escort, 94 F-150, and a 94 taurus. These vehicles all have at least 100k on them, three of the explorers have 175k+ one has 230k and the F-150 has 130k and regularly tows and hauls more than it should! Of course I am a former Ford dealership tech and am a firm believer in MAINTENANCE. I usually do not buy a new vehicle, but save my money and buy used.

I am interested in the metal pieces that they ignored when they did the service. It sounds like it was not a very good shop to over look such items and the fact that you brought it to them with a problem tells me that they just wasted your money. Those pieces are probably from a intermediate band that is not being applied at this point. If that is the case the trans needs to come out and be overhauled. I have seen many of these and some, depending on usage, can just be repaired by just replacing the band. But I would suggest to go ahead and have the complete trans inspected by a decent shop that knows what they are doing in order to get some kind of warranty.

As a good general rule I service my extreme duty transmissions every before every summer and the regular use transmissions every other year at the same time. This may sound extreme but it has always worked for me and my family!

 

Differ all you want, but the fact remains, 160,000 is a lot to ask for any transmission. Of course, I knew that when I posted that someone would come along with their "But my X has 1 million miles on it and no tranny work" story, which is great if yours went that long, but the average vehicle owned by the average person out there is not going to go much past 160,000 miles without any tranny work.

 

To Everyone that replied, thanks a bunch. Looks like I'm going to have to pull that tranny. Oh well, I been needing a reason to modify the thing anyways. So if anyone has got some suggestions on what I should do to the tranny when I get it overhauled, send them to me. It's going to need to have good horsepower and torgue, but I still need to get half way descent fuel mileage. Also, if anyone knows a good tranny mechanic in the Houston/La Porte, Texas Area, please point me in the right direction.

Thanks,

FixNit