1999 Ford Explorer - No Reverse??? PLZ help | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

1999 Ford Explorer - No Reverse??? PLZ help

scotty_medic

New Member
Joined
March 15, 2008
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
City, State
Aiken, SC
Year, Model & Trim Level
99` XLT
The other day i was trying to reverse and the reverse suddenly stopped working . The vehicle has 129,000 miles on it and has been properly maintained. The drive works PERFECT, but no reverse. It almost feels as though the reverse is in neutral or something. The RPM`s go up, but the tires don`t move. The first thing i did is fluid change, then cable adjustment, and finally range sensor for transmission. None of the above corrective actions worked. The only bit of information I have is when it went out I gassed it a little hard then almost felt as if I hit something. So I am thinking valve body, solenoid, or possible spring or something. I dont`t think transmission needs to be replaced because it runs too good in drive. As a matter of fact i did a cross country drive from el paso,TX to Aiken, SC a week ago(1700 miles). If anyone can help I would greatly appreciate.
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





Common problem with the SOHC trannies.. your reverse band is toast.. time for a re-build and it's not going to be cheap.. Sorry to be blunt but it happens.
 






ok thanks alot for the reply. Is there any way that I can maually replace the reverse band?
 






It's inside the transmission.. and they're far from simple devices IMO...
 






to scotty_MEDIC

The other day i was trying to reverse and the reverse suddenly stopped working . The vehicle has 129,000 miles on it and has been properly maintained. The drive works PERFECT, but no reverse. It almost feels as though the reverse is in neutral or something. The RPM`s go up, but the tires don`t move. The first thing i did is fluid change, then cable adjustment, and finally range sensor for transmission. None of the above corrective actions worked. The only bit of information I have is when it went out I gassed it a little hard then almost felt as if I hit something. So I am thinking valve body, solenoid, or possible spring or something. I dont`t think transmission needs to be replaced because it runs too good in drive. As a matter of fact i did a cross country drive from el paso,TX to Aiken, SC a week ago(1700 miles). If anyone can help I would greatly appreciate.

SCOTTY MEDIC .. PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT ENDED UP BEING WRONG.. I HAVE A 98 AND THE EXACT SAME THING HAPPENED TO MINE YESTERDAY.RUNS GREAT IN DRIVE ,BUT SUDDENLY LOST REVERSE..THANKS SO MUCH BEA
 






My 96 did the same thing when my parent's owned it, although the transfer case was the problem...
 






Bea, there's many other threads that are about this.. search for them, you may be able to find the information you need.
 






Mine did this too and it was indeed the reverse band. Had to have the entire transmission rebuilt.
 












Dont know how a transfer case cant do this....but. Usually it is reverse band or reverse high clutch. But if High works then broken band, Band is about the first thing you put in the bottom of the case on rebuild. I have not seen the reverse band break but if it is you can drop pan and pull the four bolts off the small thick cover toward back of valve body and remove piston and spring. If band is broken you should be able to push up through the piston pin hole and have no resistance. If not broken it should have spring tension. Good luck
 






A t-case can cause the same symptoms, but there's generally others... Like a grinding noise on coast-down from freeway speeds. Eventually when the shift fork/rail fails, the gears get forced apart when in reverse, but mesh and engage in drive. It's an oh-so-common problem.

Wouldn't a busted reverse band cause a loss of one of the forward gears too?

-Joe
 












if you do not have engine braking in low 1 then it is the reverse band. Put the explorer in 1 and drive to run the rpms up, let off the gas. if the engine does not maintain the current rpm it is more than likely the band. Typically if it is broke the engine will fall back to idle. Of course it is at the back of the tranny so there is no simple fix.
I just went through this last fall
 






the same thing happened to my 1999 exploder sport with the sohc motor. Wen i took it to a friends shop to get it checked he told me tat my reverse band had snapped. He said it is a common problem in the second gens but it wasn't that bad of a fix. I don't know how much it is gonna cost you but i got my reverse band fixed and my transmission completely rebuilt by ford certified mechanics who work directly for the ford dealership here near Danville. Good luck with your problem.
 






My explorer has the exact problem you described above. Just happened yesterday and I was wondering how much would this cost? I've been trying to get a good quote but the mechanics in my area are far from trustworthy
 






Mine's doing the same thing for the 2nd time.

1998 SOHC, 4x4

I got quotes of $600.00 from 2 different places to repair it
 






Wow... the 5r55e really is the worst transmission ever made...
 















Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.











Back
Top