Hello all just found the forum and look forward to participating.
This is the story and I am sorry it is so long. My 17 year old son was driving the '92 explorer XLT ( auto 2 wheel
drive)and had gone over to the girlfriends house about 5 miles away stayed about 2 hours then went to a friends house about half a mile from home. Hestayed there about an hour and then went to come home and the transmissionwould not go into reverse but would go into drive. So he called me and asked if
it was O.K. to drive it home I told him to check and make sure it had transmission fluid which it did but to take it easy until we could find out what was wrong. He called me in a panic when he got home. He said that it would not go over 5 miles an hour and smoke started to come out of the vents when he got home he raised the hood and it was smoking between the engine and the
firewall and a lady that was out walking stopped and told him that when he came past her there were flames under the truck. When I got home ( it was about 11:00 pm) I checked the oil and water and everything was O.K. but waited till the next morning to to look at it in the daylight. This is what I found the
transmission would not move in any gear and the transmission had the proper fluid level but was badly burnt. All the hard plastic vac lines that run around the rear of the engine are melted in two places about inline with the valve covers and and had even melted down on the exhaust manifold under the vac block where they connect. The only lines that did not melt(burn)were the rubber lines to the transmission,power brakes and the speed control. The entire top of the trans dipstick is melted into a blob. There is soot on the edges of the hood at the firewall and along the fenders where smoke had escaped. It had no fluid leaks prior to this incident but now has seapage
around the transmission pan gasket and around the front seal and visable leakage on the exhaust pipe. What the heck happenned obviously it was a fire but what caused it and where should I start on this problem. Any help would be
appreciated. The truck has 120,000 miles and has been trouble free only things replaced battery, brakes,starter, alternator, radiator and the transmission pump(at 70K). No engine or other drivetrain problems. If anyone has had a similar experience I would welcome your comments.I dont know what to make of
this or where to start. Thanks in advance

P.S. I have since dropped the trans pan drained the fluid which was really burnt (and I mean black). Some sludge in the bottom of the pan and a few metal shavings but not a great deal. Vac hose to the modulator still connected. I removed the modulator and no visable burning of any wires or connections around the trans. Looks like burnt trans fluid or oil on the exhaust crossover pipe.

 

man, kids will smoke anything these days!

 

catching on fire when towing a trailer in places like Colorado. The front seal leaks and covers the cat with oil. So how much oil was left in the transmission? I think this had a couple of problems to start including the low/reverse servo O ring leaking which lowered line pressures. A lot of the "soft" parts in your transmission are gone now. About $100-150 if you do it yourself. An easy transmission to work on. You may not be up to it if you are asking about rubber hoses.

 

Thanks for your reply. As stated in my first post the trans had the proper amount of fluid but that it was burnt so badly that it was black. As stated in the first post the only vac lines that did not melt were the rubber lines that were attached to the vac block (power brake booster, speed control and the rubber line that attaches to the steel line that goes to the trans modulator) All other hard plastic vac lines were melted as was the entire top of the trans dipstick. There is no evidence of oil on the cat converter but there is on the crossover pipe below the bellhousing. Is there a way to get the rest of the bad fluid out of the transmission without getting it to a shop to have it pumped out.

 

i think the torque converter has a drain on it can't remember just a pain in a 4x4 Hey I just bought a totaled 2wd explorer (for the motor)

 

If the filter was changed recently, the pan gasket may stil be intact and can be reused. Clean up the sediment and and refill the pan. You can overfill by 2 quarts. Remove one of the cooler lines and drain it into a container. Fluid will come out of both hoses, much more one than the other. Start engine and pump out three quarts, stop engin and refill 3 quarts. Repeat till you have gone through at least 15 quarts. You should drop the low/reverse servo and inspect it. If the O ring is round it should be replaced. There is no drain plug on the TC.