Well everybody...just my luck. My trany bit one 468 miles over my warranty. With it being from a peice of S#($ chrysler dealer it looks like I'm sol. I've been looking around the site for a bit, and it looks like it may be a T5 that goes in.

The problem I'm looking at though is that I've got an auto tranny and I want to keep it that way. Everything I've heard looks to me that it only works with a manual. Is this true?? If it can be dropped in and keep an auto, does anybody know about the price range I'm looking at and what parts I'd need. I'd rather spend about $2000 and get a tranny that will never die, over a rebuilt one that will go about a year down the line.

Any ideas???

The T-5 is a manual transmission, there's no getting around it, you'll have to go with an automatic one. Try going to a shop that remanufacturs the automatic one (I can't remember which trasmission is in the explorer) but b/c there's so many of our explorers on the road, I'm sure they're easy to come by. That would probally be your best bet.