I have a 2017 Explorer that is having a shifting problem. A little history of this particular Explorer. I bought this back in March from Copart as a salvage to rebuild for my wife. It was wrecked in the front from hitting a deer. I have replaced the whole front end and even had to replace the transmission cover since it was cracked. I also had to replace the electrical plug that goes onto the transmission. When I did that, I was meticulous in writing down where each pin went to. It is all together now except for bumper and lights and associated wires/plugs.
Now the symptoms. When I shift into Drive, I can hear the trans shifting and it seems to take a little time (about 5 to 10 seconds) and it sounds like a wirring sound. If I shift into manual, it takes time if at all shifting. When I have it in Drive, I can drive it, but only till it hits 2000 RPM, then it wont go any faster. I tried loading onto a car trailer, and it wont even make it over the 1 1/2" high ramp with out a running start. When I check the fluid level, it looks ok. I have run many diagnostics on FORScan and nothing pops up except for the lights not being hooked up and HVAC stuff because I swapped out a 4 inch screen for an 8 inch screen and have not had a chance to update the program for that.

I am wondering is it possible there is an air lock in the system since I had both the cover off and the cooling lines due to changing the radiator and cooler? Or is there something else going on?

 

An air lock is impossible in a transmission. It can't happen.

What is a transmission cover? I'm not familiar with that term.

When you ran diagnostics with Forscan are you saying that it had no codes available?

 

While searching for problems I came across one where a Ford Dealer said some kind of valve was going bad and causes air to get into the system. Was just wondering if that is part of the problem since the lines were disconnected and drained.

These have a plastic cover on what I would call the front (side facing forward) now. I guess you can call it a pan, but since its on a side position, I called it a cover. Never thought I would see the day of anything plastic on the exterior of a transmission, yet here we are. The cover was cracked at the fill tube/dipstick location. Fluid was a little low, but not low enough to have caused issues. No water was in the fluid either. It was just cracks and figured I would replace while the front end was disassembled.

I had codes on FORScan, but nothing relating to powertrain. All codes pertained to the head lights, fog lights and both side mirrors not being connected (waiting for paint) Also the other codes were for HVAC due to me switching out from a 4" screen to the 8" Sync 3 system. I have to reprogram for the new system, just have not done that yet, was waiting to get back from paint.