91 explorer drove it home parked for 2 days now have no forward gears reverse ok. changed fluid and filter pan clean no metal nothing out of the ordinary. it is an a4ld tranny.
need help.

 

Can't say that I have an answer for you but I have the same problem. I was taking off from a light and felt something give. I'm in the process of taking the trans out now. Trans shop wanted 1,000 for labor only and they rebuilt the trans about 2 years ago. Someone had replied to me that it might be the pump that failed. I just started on mine so it may take awhile before I have it out. Once I have it out I'm debating whether to take it in somewhere to have it looked at or take it apart myself. At worst I'll buy a trans through Ford. 1,600 with the convertor over the counter. But it comes with a 24k and a 2 year warranty. The trans shop that did the work only gave me 12k and a year. Whatever you decide to do it might be worthwhile to have an external filter added. I've seen posts where they recommend doing that as the stock unit is just a screen. Good Luck!

 

or the seals on the center support are leaking. First you must check that you have no forward movement in either 1 or 2. I know that pulling out a transmission is not a lot of fun but if you are so inclined, the A4LD is cheap and easy transmission to work on.

 

Well I have the transfer case out and dropped the pan. The pan was clean although the fluid didn't smell burnt it didn't look bright red either. Anyone have any suggestions on where to start after getting the trans out? For instance although someone had mentioned to me that the pump might be bad how do you check that? I would think that if gears had broken I would see metal in the pan. Any transmission guru's out there that can help?

 

I've been meaning to update this and have more information that I haven't posted yet. There has been an almost total lack of interest so I had stopped posting for a while. Like putting a message in a bottle and wondering if anyone ever reads it. I'd start out buying a manual $16, basic gasket kit $27 and filter $10 at bulkpart.com. There are others but this is neophite friendly to start. I wouldn't do the pump unless there are obvious signs of low pressure like worn clutches. At this time this may only need the valve body cleaned and not a pull out.

 

Thanks Opera House, appreciate the help.I'll check it out. Just want a clarification, you think that it might just be the valve body that needs to be cleaned? I assumed it has to be something mechanical since I lost all forward gears but still have reverse. Guess I'll just break all the bolts loose on the crossmember etc. in case I have to pull the trans and then check the valve body after I get the manual. My time to work on the truck is limited so I need to keep doing something until the manual arrives. I have a Ford CD but it doesn't have a lot of detail for the do it yourselfer.

P.S. I apologize jjcreasman for stepping on your thread. When I posted a while back no one replied. Plus it sounds like we have the same problem.

 

That fluid out of the stick makes me wonder. If you really burnt the clutch, why did it work then not the next day. Did you ever try it in manual one and two. Could the heat have damaged the seals over night? Hard failures that create metal are much easier to figure out. There are a lot grey area problems that you never understand till you see hundreds of transmissions. With the valve body removed, you can operate the clutches with an air nozzel and you can clean up the valve body. On the clutch itself, there is a ball check valve that can get stuck open and the piston will never pressurize. At least they say it can. It is just a steel ball in a hole. Without a lot of sediment or metal, you are looking at a soft failure. Guess I'll have to post the intermediate installation instructions. Pretty easy, but you don't have a chance of doing it if you follow the manual. I used the handyman's secret helper, duct tape!

 

Let me know when you post the intermediate instructions. Dryer went out in the house so that takes priority right now. Do I need to order both manuals or is the basic one sufficient? The second manual is listed as updates. If I get to work on the truck this weekend I'll loosten the bolts but not pull the trans until I check out the valve body. The trans only has about 23k since it was rebuilt and was shifting fine until it went out at a light. I did not have any of the forward gears only reverse which at least got me out of traffic. Thanks for all the help!!

 

Have you found my other stuff yet? All you need is the basic manual. If I get some time, I'll redo the initial tear down.

Intermediate Assembly - Installing it back in te transmission

They probably have a tool for this. On page 71 (step 25) of the ATSG manual they tell you to install the forward clutch as an assembly. The picture indicates that you slide it in with the transmission on its side and the procedure is a one liner. This is a fairly long heavy assembly and it easily falls apart. The assembly has a number of bearings that quickly slide out of position. Even tried using the input shaft to help slide it in. Tip the transmission too far and the planetary gears fall out. This assembly is easy to put together outside of the transmission. The clutch plates have splines and you rotate the mating piece like a safe cracker and the plates drop in place one by one. You can even install as pieces in the transmission and everything goes great till you try to put in the forward clutch. The solution was to drop the completed assembly in the transmission when it was in the vertical position with the output shaft down. I had some one inch wide duct tape that I folded back on itself for 8 inches. The next 1 ½ inches was stuck to the input shell (part #56). Then another section was taped against itself to form a handle that looped around and stuck to the other side of the shell in the same fashion. If you clean the input shell before doing this with brake cleaner, the adhesion is quite strong for such a little area. This allowed me to drop the entire assembly in and the weight of the pieces held everything together. You can either rotate the assembly or the output shaft till the planetary gears mate. The assembly drops down part way then and rides on the spline shaft. Lift slightly on the assembly and rotate the output shaft back and forth till the assembly drops down further. The drag from the clutches tends to keep the splines from aligning, but it usually doesn't take more than 30 seconds of turning before it drops in. Once in place, I just pressed down on the assembly while pulling the tape end tabs up. The tape then easily pulled off. I think I saw in a catalogue a frame that grabbed the bottom lip of the drum and allowed you to drop it in this way. Still, you can't beat the handyman's secret helper, duct tape. Frankly, I don't see any way that it is possible to install it the way the manual says without some kind of "tool."

The only way to know if everything went back together right is to measure the clearance between the forward drum and the center support. The clearance should be between 0.012 The manual says to take a spare center support and drill a 1/8 inch hole in it where the thrust washer sits. I don't know about you, but I looked all around my transmission and it didn't seem to have come with a spare. Just like the last used car I bought, no spare! I saw no reason not to drill a hole in the one I was using. Just drill it 180 degrees from the other three feed holes. The nice thing about having a spare center support is you don't have to put the rubber rings in it when you do this measurement. If the pin for the intermediate servo removed, you are able rotate the center support around and get several readings. It probably isn't necessary to rotate to get multiple readings if yoy are anywhere close and there are no obvious signs of wear on the brass thrust washers. This check is mostly to see if anything had slipped when installing the intermediate assembly.

Installing the center support can seem tricky if you try to install it for practice prior to installing the intermediate assembly. While clearance isn't really tight, the outside mounting ring has a grooved surface that hangs up easily unless it is dropped in perfectly vertical. Any burrs can easily hang it up. When the intermediate assembly is installed, it acts as a guide for the center support and the installation of the center support is much easier. The center support's rubber rings must be installed before the final installation the drum assembly. Install the rings, lubricate with petroleum jelly, and place in the overdrive brake drum (see page 66) before it is installed in the transmission. Allowing it to sit in the drum for an hour will allow the rubber to relax. This will make it easier to install when the drum is in the transmission. Be sure to read the applicable sections of the manual for other important details.