Loud Clunking

[badash]

alright so heres the deal, I have a 91 Explorer XLT 4.0 and the A4LD

when i shift into gear, R or D i get a loud clunking sound, almost like metal hitting metal, after it is in gear it drives fine 123, and OD, but when i stop and go sometimes it will do a small clunk almost like it slips into first...

any ideas what this could be? or where I should start?

 

[HardTech]

mines been doing this for 3 years. Every time we changed the fluid and the filter both looked new.

Its going into a trans shop later this week. Ill repost if they found anything. The only thing different from mine is putting it into drive makes no "clunk" sound. Just when coming to a stop sometimes (not a hard stop mind you).

Well total fluid change on its way, and this shop lets you know if theres an issue when they do there work

 

[badash]

yeah i get the same thing when i come to a stop sometimes it will clunk, let me know what you find out. thanks!

doin the ball joints this thursday, i dont have money for tranny problems :S

 

[HardTech]

Yeah I think its fine. But the folks are paying for it. Found out that I have to keep this little 95 for another 5 years :/

16 years old. Maybe after that I can classify it as a classic

I will post the results good or bad. I always kind of wondered my self but didnt want to spend the money to investigate, as it didnt seem serious then or even now.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Were the engine, and transmission mounts checked, or replaced? Do you have these problems all of the time, or only in 4H, or 4L? Maybe it's one of the U joints.

 

[badash]

its in 2wd, and yeah U joints are a possibility, i pray it's that instead of the whole chabang!

 

[BrooklynBay]

Before the U joint starts to go, it makes a lot of squeeking noises whenever you tap on the accelerator, but goes away as soon as you let go, or move a little faster. As the joint wears out, it will start to make a clunking noise whenever you hit the accelerator, and another clunk when you release your foot off of the accelerator. Does this sound like the symptoms that you were having? When this starts to happen, it must be taken care of right away, or you could have the joint break. At that point, there is nothing holding that side of the drivshaft. You would then have to replace the driveshaft in addition to the U joints.

 

[badash]

hmmm yeah that does sort of sound like what is happening, i mean it makes a loud clunk when put into gear, but i have noticed that sometimes when i stop it will feel like it clunks out of gear or something, and when i go to accelerate again it jumps a little

i got a friend comin over tonight to take a look, and i think im gonna swing into the tranny shop tommorow and get her checked out

 

[badash]

so my friend thinks the ujoints, the tranny shop think it could be the angle because of the lift the rear diff area somewhere, they werent very clear actually... and i probably wont go back they did the flippin rebuild!

i also discovered now that 2nd gear is slipping so i guess its only a matter of time for my rebuiild...

*edit*
just thought of something maybe the tranny case should be dropped a bit?? anyone else thats lifted there X run into these symptoms or have you dropped your tcase?

 

[Heavymentill]

Does this clunking mainly happen while idling?

 

[badash]

1996Limited, yes it happens from idle to putting into gear

also, if this means anything when im reversing you know how sometimes you might put it in drive before the vehicle is completely stopped? it makes a HUUUUUGE clunk if i do this...

 

[HardTech]

Well I dropped it off, although he hasn’t been able to look at it. He plans to take everything out and look at it when he’s replacing the fluids. But he told me this:

"It sounds as if the transmission is fine; it’s going into a gear without slipping. This is a good sign; I feel my best opinion without looking at it is a pressure related problem. This would be easy to fix, and easy on the wallet. I’ll do a pressure test to make sure, and just give everything a general look over."

Nice guy, and it looks as if he will be nice to the ole wallet. Ill know more in 12-48 hours.

 

[badash]

cool thanks hardtech.

hope it isn't a major problem!

i think im gonna go ahead and replace the ujoints next week and maybe drop the tcase an inch see if its the angle of the drive shaft too much stress?

 

[HardTech]

Well got it back late yesterday. The guy had it hooked up to a computer and double and triple checked over. Looked at everything he could, and tried to recreate the problem.

His theory is something small got stuck somewhere creating a pressure issue. But as he showed me pictures there was nothing wrong with the transmission. The computer is saying it’s shifting when its supposed to, and there is no problems.

The fluid was clean, and the filter had nothing in it. The pan had nothing in it. And everything else looks fine. He swore to me that the transmission look like it only has 20k miles on it, not the 130k. But he did verify that nothing has been rebuilt as far as he could tell.

He told me its nothing, if for some reason I can get it to come back and drop it off free of charge. For 3 days of work, changing the fluid and filter he only charged 78 bucks. Bonus for me.

Last comment is the explorer is in great shape, he doesn’t expect to see me for at least another 15k miles for fluid change only. And he feels if the transmission is wearing the way it is, I have an easy 100k miles left on this transmission. I basically got one of the few 95 transmissions that wasn’t junk.

So I plan to see if the original transmission can go to 250k miles with no rebuild

Sorry its not much info. But mine turned out to be nothing.