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Ford Explorer Community - Maintenance - Modifications - Performance Upgrades - Problem Solving - Off-Road - Street
Explorer Forum Covers the Explorer ST, Explorer Sport, Explorer Sport Trac, Lincoln Aviator, Mercury Mountaineer, Mazda Navajo, Ford Ranger, Mazda Pickups, and the Ford Aerostar
There isn't much room between the oil filter adaptor and the exhaust manifold.
There is enough room to remove it with the exhaust manifold on.
I removed the oil filter adaptor to replace the O-rings since I had the transmission out. I am waiting on the O-rings which should be here next weekend.
Good call replacing those o rings, they are always dried up and hard as a rock by now
What rear main seal did you use that has a sleeve?
I’ve always just pulled the old one with some drywall screws, clean, prep and press a new one in with some loctite 515/518 anaerobic sealant on the outer edge and a standard seal driver/ hammer lol
The seal was a factory Ford seal, comes with the sleeve inside it already.
Ford Rear Main Seal F5TZ6701A
There are aftermarket ones now that come with the sleeve too.
I drilled a hole in the old seal then threaded a screw into it and pulled it out. Drywall screws work great, I have used them before.
Here is a video I made installing one of these rear main seals with the Ford installation tool.
The engine in this video is in my supercharged Explorer now and no leaks. Doesn't even have 500 miles on it yet though. lol
While I had everything out and was able to sit underneath without being underneath the fuel filter, I put a new on in. This is a picture of the old one. These fuel filters corrode on the fitting ends and become a real struggle to remove. I sprayed the ends with PB blaster penetrant. The end facing the rear was tight but after spinning it and pulling it came apart without anything breaking.
This is a tool that puts tension on the chain while you tighten the camshaft sprocket bolts. It comes with a fat copper washer.
The old design tensioners used to come with these thick copper washers but now they come with a very thin coated washer that doesn't seem to seal up very well sometimes. I found a couple of new old stock tensioners with copper washers and installed one along with a new timing chain guide on the passenger rear, while I had the transmission out. I found the chain guide was broken, but not shattered yet. Most of the time I find them shattered and have to work to get all the broken pieces out. Also got the oil filter adaptor back in.
One of the struggles I had was getting the correct parts. This was supposed to be a passenger side rear timing chain kit but when I opened the box it was for the driver side front. The new OEM FORD kit was boxed wrong. I kept it and had to order the correct one again but this time I had the seller open the box to make sure it was boxed correctly.
I bought a used transmission for $550.00 since the original transmission case had stripped bolt holes including 2 for the valve body.
My intention was to get this Explorer up and running as soon as possible, rebuild the original transmission when I had time off, and keep it as a spare.
When you get a junkyard transmission these days it comes empty, they say you have to change the filter, seals, and flush your transmission lines. I flushed the cooler lines with brake clean and compressed air until no more metal residue came out, I have done this before and have had success using this method.
When I pulled the pan off the junkyard transmission to install a new filter and gasket, I found the valve body and reverse servo cover gasket were blown out.
I had a couple valve body gaskets and servo cover gaskets in stock from some rebuild kits I purchased in the past. I usually install remanufactured valve bodies that come with the gaskets already installed. I installed new gaskets and torqued everything to spec. I found it unusual that the valve body gaskets came right off the separator plate without anything sticking to it, these must have been changed recently (or before the vehicle was junked).
So on 4-20-2025 I had this junkyard transmission installed but it only had reverse (since I replaced those gaskets), and D2 which is third gear in these 5R55E transmissions. I ordered a used case to rebuild my original transmission.
Here is the used case I bought off eBay, the bolt holes were all good. The only things on the case were the two servo covers and the output shaft needle bearing which was in great shape.
The sprag clutches in these transmission are known for breaking so I ordered them with the rebuild kit and other parts needed to bring this back to life. The front sprag clutch that is in the over drive planetary gear set needed to be replaced, the copper end piece had fallen off.
I installed the new sprag clutch by hand and used a small screwdriver to push in on the little plastic tabs so it would go in.
It was difficult to get in there so I ordered the Ford special tools for installing both sprag clutches in the future for my next rebuild. In the past I just ordered this part used off eBay with a good sprag clutch already in it.
I got Raybestos clutches along with my rebuild kit and other parts. I got all the parts soaking that needed to be before going any further. I let them soak as I finished tearing down the original transmission. I had these containers with transmission fluid already in them from the last time I soaked transmission parts for my Ranger transmission rebuild back in 2020. lol. I was happy about that because the price of transmission fluid sure has gone up with everything else.
You are supposed to soak the new clutches for at least a half an hour. I ended up soaking them for much longer anyway.
