Stuck after valve body repair S.O.S | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Stuck after valve body repair S.O.S

TheJerm

Active Member
Joined
November 12, 2013
Messages
51
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City, State
Mundelein, IL
Year, Model & Trim Level
2000 Ford Explorer EB ohc
First off I love this site, and big thanks goes out to all who help on here. It has helped me out big time!

I have a 2000 (11/99) Eddie Bauer 4.0 SOHC with automatic 4wd with 95000miles and the 5r55e tranny. The truck is awesome has given me no major problems (lots of little ones). When I bought it I noticed the shift flare I read so much about on here while trying fix things on my 91 explorer (yes, I miss her) and figured ah i'll have to do the valve body before too long. So I ordered the gasket kit, got a good deal on the six pack of solenoids just to have, grabbed 8 qts of merc. V and got started. Everything went totally smooth. as I suspected the gasket was totally blown out by the 4 solenoids and a small blow out by the reverse servo. very carefully removed plate and gaskets and found the VB to be very clean inside. I inspected it and found one little piece of gasket in a channel near the solenoids. the filter was spotless, so as I didn't want to mess any of the little doo dads up, I put the new gaskets and plate back on along with the new solenoids. I inspected the reverse servo, it was fine, the gaskets are good, still tight. the end has no cracks or signs of damage. I can see the mark in the band, and it is springy and doesn't move around. ok so I slap it all back up, torque everything to 90 in. as per diary, filled it with fluid, started it up and nothing. no gears at all. dang. so I dropped the pan and found that I hadn't hooked up the gear shift to the manual valve. MORON! got it in, all back together, filled her up, put it in reverse... nothing! drive... nothing. 1st and 2nd work perfect. I checked the fluid, and it's in the hash marks. hmm. so drop the pan again, inspect reverse servo again, re torque to 120 in. put old solenoids (which test out) back in. torqued everything back up, put it back together and, still no reverse, still no drive, 1 and 2 work just fine with enginge braking in 1, but now the O/D light is flashing too! What would be my next move here? I'm at my wits end and stuck here in the cold garage! any help would be greatly appreciated.
 



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more stuff

Also, the reverse lights come on, and the truck can be started in neutral. And I just had the back brake line burst after pushing it out of the garage, lovely!
 






Sounds like you missed the manual valve
 






Actually I did miss the manual valve on the first try, and thought whew, that was it. but it wasn't. after hooking up the manual valve to the range selector, I still have no reverse and no drive, but 2 and 1 work perfect!
 












Thank you kindly, I will look at it, just the Ex back up on the stands!
 






ok, nice picture! yes that is what I left off the first time, that is correct now, still have no reverse or drive. I guess the VB is coming off again, after I check the harness, but from what I understand no reverse is not an electrical problem.
 






pan off, still cant see anything obvious wrong, well at least I wont have to reach for anything but 10mm socket for awhile.
 






No drive and reverse but pulls in low and 2nd is a sign of a broken input sprag.

I agree that it doesn't fit with just a VB repair but you need to know.

Only thing that I can think of that would be valve body related would be missing or misplaced retainers or a missing extension housing lube orifice (looks like a small hockey puck with hole in it, yellowish in color).

Nothing electrical will cause this.
 






thanks JK080, I've done hours and hours of searching on here, and so have heard of the sprag issue. other than the 2-3 flare the trans was perfect when I pulled it in the garage, so there's literally zero chance of that. the gasket was blown out right by the 4 pack of solenoids just as I suspected. I was extremely careful taking it off, and have inspected against a diagram 30 times. nothing is missing, and it is as clean as a new one. I'm at a loss. i'll go slap it up again and see what happens. I also saw somewhere that some were taking the epc relief valve off of the spring, and also removing the little filter. should I do this too? Thanks for your help. and wish me luck
 






well, went through everything again, everything is as it should be. put it back on, triple checked every connection, bolt, everything. still no reverse, no drive, put it in 2 or 1 and it takes right off. I noticed this time if I turn off the O/D button I can shift it UP into drive while sitting still and it is fine, not down, and I still have no reverse. my question is, what different parts missing or not working would suddenly cause a no reverse situation. just taking off the valve body can't break the sprag right? nothing was wrong with this trans except the 2-3 flare. could it be the range selector? how do I test that or line it up correctly? I am Grateful for any response, anything that might get me in the right direction. I have dropped the pan 5 times now, the VB 3 times. I am stuck in my aunt's garage, which slopes toward the front so I can't push it out myself, I know nobody in this town, and am hoping for anything but to tow it all the way back to my place. thanks again for any help
 






You mentioned that there's a flashing O/D light. Try to get a hold of a scanner to read the code number. Don't disconnect the battery. Did you install new O rings, and a flat gasket on the low/reverse servo?
 






Simple item---have you added enough AFT after correcting the manual valve issue?

It takes time for the tran to warm up in order to check the fluid level.

I'm working the same issue (5R55E tran on Explorer SportTrac, O/D Off light flashing, 2-3 flare). After installing new VB gaskets, new filter and pan gasket, I had no gears (no reverse, no Drive, no 2 or 1). It was cold last night and added 4 qts of AFT. This wasn't enough, even after running the engine for 25+ minutes. This morning added another 1.5 qts and have all gears now.

Still have 2-3 flare and flashing O/D Off light.
 






I noticed this time if I turn off the O/D button I can shift it UP into drive while sitting still and it is fine, not down, and I still have no reverse.

This is another indication that the input sprag is not holding, when the OD is canceled the coast clutch is applied, the coast clutch will support the sprag.

Only thing I can suggest is to try a different known good VB, if the same condition remains it only leaves the sprag.

Here is a thread that I helped on where he just did a valve body repair on a working transmission and ended up with a broken pump gear after reassembly, just bad luck...

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=418406
 






Thank you guys for the input! well dropped it again, found that on one of the solenoids, the electric plug wasn't pushed on all the way, so no O/D flashing any more. fluid level is perfect, I reset the computer by unhooking the battery and leaving the lights on all night. and then did the restart procedure still no reverse or drive. but now the ABS light is on and the scanner says bad passenger front wheel speed sensor. so i'll check on that too. also this time, when I dropped the pan and took the bolts out for the reverse servo, the servo just fell out right into my hand. I guess my next step will be the gaskets for the reverse servo. thank you again everyone's help. I will go try this again and come back and update.
 






JK080,

I read that thread, and sounds like that pump gear probably broke the fist time he shifted, he said it went into reverse and forward hard and then nothing, mine has never even tried to shift. it doesn't even lower the rpms when I put it in R. I sure hope it's not the sprag. thanks again man
 






what about the range sensor? is there a test or an adjustment procedure for it? and also, are the servo gaskets something I can get at an autozone, or do I need to order them?
 






just for something to do while I am looking this stuff up, I reset the computer again by taking the + and - off the battery and connecting them for an hour. off to start her up.
 






I went to a Ford dealership for the VB and servo gaskets. The dealership was out of stock on the servo gasket so I re-used the existing one (wasn't in bad shape). Some threads have discussed replacing the O-rings on the servo, mine were okay (and no reverse issues in my case).
 



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went out and started it still no reverse. JK080, I was mistaken. if I shift it into 2 it will engage immediately and surge forward, then I can shift up into drive, even if I don't have the O/D off. and I can still pull forward. if I shift from park to drive nothing. I have to shift to 2nd and then to drive. doesn't work for reverse unfortunately. thanks again everybody for responding. I'm totally stuck.
 






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