92 2wd explorer - drove in (2) and now no forward gears?

[eucasafari]

92 Explorer, 2x4, 77,000 miles, automatic transmission

just picked this up three days ago. drove it 300 miles without incident.
got it home, was going to get it smogged and I drove it around the block a few times in 2 to get the revs up and warm up the motor good for the test.

pulled up to a light, put it in N for a minute, then back into 2 and continued on to the smog shop. pulled into a parking spot and went in to do the paperwork.
guy came out of the shop, backed it out of the parking space and put it into drive - nothing.
No overdrive, drive, 2, 1, but still goes into reverse without any issues.

the shifting lever feels normal, and going into reverse engages the same as it has been, but every other gear just feels exactly like neutral. it just revs in forward gears.

the PO had paperwork about replacing the torque converter about 8k miles ago.

any thoughts on possible causes/fixes?

I called the shop, they said it wasn't the throttle cable and it wasn't the valve - will know tomorrow, but his next guess is the 'Sprag clutch' ?

 

[eucasafari]

it needs a new transmission.

the forward clutches are shot. I guess if you get it rolling a little bit and then try it, it will start going in 1st gear, but once it upshifts into 2nd it starts slipping bad.

they quoted me $2600 to get it back up and running.

 

[shaggymane]

Sad.......it is such a clean truck. I've seen that happen on older vehicles with low miles.
the clutches dry out or something. Where, who'd you get it from?

Just curious about something. In KS dealers have to offer a powertrain warranty on used cars. Usually 50 - 50. It can be negotiated down as part of the price but only to 10%.
Cal have anything like that?

Some poeple drive 30-35-40 mph in town, in OD, so the torque convertor keeps going in and out of lockup. Wears out the lock up clutches. May be why that was replaced.

 

[eucasafari]

the previous owner said he would work with me.

the shop even said they would buy it from me if I don't want to fix it, and whatever the pay will go towards how much I have in the truck. the previous owner will refund the rest of it back to me thankfully.

im considering fixing it, im just not sure if I should. it would be $2600 to get it back up and running, but then id be able to rely on it more or less.

If I redid the transmission, then at least I would know where it stands. I was thinking about using it to tow with, perhaps starting with a nice newly rebuilt transmission would give me some piece of mind in that regard

hard to say...

 

[Masterd]

That $2600 quote is too high.

Its a clean truck, dont get rid of it.

You could probably convert it to a manual by yourself for less than 2600.

 

[jbt21479]

Look around for a used one in a junk yard if anything. I have found several around my city for about $200-300. Of course with that you run the risk of something else going wrong, but it may get you by awhile and you could rebuild yours in the meantime.

 

[eucasafari]

I thought that price was a little steep.
I know you don't want to go with total crap when buying a rebuilt transmission, especially since these A4LD's seem to be somewhat prone to crapping out early in life, but I found some shipped free for as little as $900

the local Ford guy rebuilds these transmissions and sells them for about $1800 with a 12 month 12k mile warranty, or $2k for a 30k mile warranty. the rest of the $600 is for fluid, labor and misc BS parts for the job I suppose.

I was never intending on buying it in the first place. I have wanted an older explorer for a little while now but hadn't been shopping around by any means, I literally just happened to talk to the neighbor of a friend while traveling out of town and stumbled upon the deal. I hope to get another one, but for now I think I have to walk on this one. It's just left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth for only having this vehicle for a few days and having to go from 'wow, I got a hell of a deal' to '****, where am I gonna get $2+k to dump into it right off the bat?'

thanks for the replies guys. I do hope to be an owner again soon and will keep my membership open until that time. just don't let me get talked into a Honda Odyssey!

 

[92exp4x4]

Your X is clean thats for sure. Its worth putting a tranny in, but if you are wanting to tow, you may want to get a full size. I got a full size Bronco that i use to tow with. It does great. It has the 351 and the heavy duty E4OD automatic in it. The best part is it's lenth. Its shorter than a short bed-short cab pickup and i can back a trailer into about any space i want to.

I love California vehicles. I just bought a 92 2 door and it has not a spec of rust anywhere. Even the underside still has all the paint on it and the driveshaft has just a light dusting of surface rust on it. It seriously looks like its only 2 years old.