Hello everybody! This is my personal experience that may became useful for those who own 1st gen Explorers with A4LD A/T.

About a week ago I noticed loud clunking sound from beneath my '93 A/T Explorer. Also I noticed that sound becomes louder after turning the A/C on.

I visited several service shops, they all made different suggestions. The most common was broken A/T torque converter or that rear A/T support becomes flatten and now transmission touches catalytic converter.

I decided to go to the service shop that specializes only on Ford automatic transmissions. They removed the starter and then concluded that flywheel cracked apart. Have to admit that only that shop decided to remove the starter to check torque converter and flywheel, others were too lazy?

Then, after they removed the tranny, I saw the flywheel. Never seen such a mess! Flywheel cracked around the bolts that mount it to the crankshaft, and it collapsed into two pieces: star-shaped piece that was bolted to the crankshaft and the spacer, and other that was remains of the rest... Thanks God I was lucky and the flywheel haven't been torn apart, and the inner part stayed within the outer.

They said that this is the common problem for older Explorers, and these original flywheels are prone to cracking apart. Also several parts stores confirmed that Explorer flywheel is the part that is being ordered not that rarely.

So I would like to warn fellow 1-st gen Explorer owners that strange loud clanking noise from beneath the car may be caused by this flywheel failure. Also I must say that car continues to drive, and it drives well except the noise. My service shop also say that I was very lucky: if the flywheel have blown apart it would be very costly to repair the engine and the transmission.

This should a pretty common problem for these cars.

And for those who interested, the price for the repair was:
Labor:
1. Diagnostics: 400 Rubles = $12
2. Transmission removal & installation = $180
3. Rear crankshaft seal replacement = $5
Parts:
1. Rear crankshaft seal = $11
2. Flywheel = $122
3. Crankshaft to flywheel spacer = $31
4. ATF (Mercon-V), 4 quarts = $13

Total (parts & labor) = $374

I beleive that prices here in Russia and in the US will differ: in US parts are cheeper (as they are domestic) and labor is more expensive.

With best regards,
Yuri,
Moscow, Russia