1999 Explorer, no 3rd gear

[dan baker]

Hi guys,
My girlfriend has a 1999 explorer limited, 3 spd auto trans. 277,000 miles on it.
couple days ago she was going down the road and she said she heard a "pop" noise, like a giant rubber band breaking, the trans went into neutral, she got off the road, stopped, and put it into drive and took off. truck shifted from 1st to 2nd normally but would not shift into 3rd.
I checked all the linkage, cable, and wires and found nothing wrong, I drove the truck and it wont shift into 3rd at all.
I've rebuilt and repaired a lot of manual tranny's but never had an auto tranny apart, any ideas on whats wrong with it ? what should i be looking for ?

 

[JK080]

Sounds like something is broken, the only way to know what happened is to remove it and disassemble it. Nothing external will cause this.

 

[dan baker]

Sounds like something is broken, the only way to know what happened is to remove it and disassemble it. Nothing external will cause this.

Thanks for the reply, The OD light is flashing so i guess I need to get the codes read and see what comes up ? The tranny is a 4R70W.
I;ll remove the pan and see anything falls out, Any tips on a quality rebuild kit for this transmission ?

 

[CDW6212R]

Welcome Dan, that trans is a four speed, 4R70W. The 4th gear is a band, and losing any gear is certainly a rebuild job. Most shops will expect $2k or more, and those require many special trans tools.

If price is important and you can R&R the trans yourself, you might try to find a shop which can bench build it, which means all they do is the rebuild, none of the R&R. Most of the labor is to R&R the trans, so a bench build is much cheaper when you can get it done that way.

 

[dan baker]

Welcome Dan, that trans is a four speed, 4R70W. The 4th gear is a band, and losing any gear is certainly a rebuild job. Most shops will expect $2k or more, and those require many special trans tools.

If price is important and you can R&R the trans yourself, you might try to find a shop which can bench build it, which means all they do is the rebuild, none of the R&R. Most of the labor is to R&R the trans, so a bench build is much cheaper when you can get it done that way.

Thanks for the reply, I was able to find a Trans at a junkyard for a reasonable price, I put a new filter and new shift solenoids in the replacement tranny and the vehicle is back on the road.

 

[CDW6212R]

Well done. The solenoids are a wear item and possible that one of those failed. The hard parts of a trans are very reliable and long lived. The things like electronics and dirty ATF end up starting a problem. Keep good fluid in one and replace things which can be, every 100k-150k miles, and they survive a long time.