1991 Explorer blowing out tranny fluid

[lt80racerdad]

My son was given a 1991 Ford Explorer from someone that had let the vehicle sit off and on for a year or so.....Not long before we took it, in the warmer months of the year, he had experienced the tranny fluid blowing out when the driving....It was a hotter day.

They refilled the tranny fluid, looked to find a leak, but did not find any leaks. He really did ot drive the vehicle much after this incidednt. I drove the vehicle home, about 125 miles, with no problems....But the weather was cooler.....

My son has been driving it with some minor issues of tranny fluid being low now and again.

Last week, he was driving and had a similar incident where it blew all the fluid out...Again, it was a much warmer day.

We brough the vehicle to a garage and they replaced the pan gasket. He was driving it home from the garage today and got about 3 miles down the road and blew all the fluid out AGAIN. Again, it was quite warm out today.

The engine and transmission have about 10,000 on rebuilds......

Any thoughts on things I can look for to save the truck from a trip to the junk yard???

Thanks!!

 

[BrianDye]

What do you mean by blowing out? You had mentioned that you didnt find any leaks...

 

[lt80racerdad]

I must first make a correction to my initial post. I talked to my son last night and he said that he had actually driven the vehicle for more than 3 miles. Not sure on the number of miles, but I think it was more like 20-30 miles over the course of 3-4 hours.

When he first got the vehicle, he was driving it back and forth to school and around town and so on for a month or so without noticing any issues. Then one day he said that he was having trouble with it engaging when taking off from a stop sign or stop light. He said he would need to rev it a bit, then it would engage and he would take off.

I pulled it into the garage and checked the fluid and obviously it was low. So I added fluid until it was at the appropriate level. I let the vehicle run in the garage for a while, shifting through all the gears, holding the brakes, pushing on the accelerator trying to force it to leak, but I never did see any specific leaks.

So, he drove the vehicle for about another month, saying that it was operating fine. The air temps up to now have been cooler....Probably no more than 65 degs F.

Then one day, about a week or so ago, he had been driving it and was pulling it into his friends driveway when they noticed that he was leaving a trail of tranny fluid on the driveway. The air temp on this day was near 80deg F. His friends dad, put in some tranny fluid for him and he made it back home.

I added some additional fluid so that he bring it into a repair shop. The repair shop replaced the pan gasket and filled it up with fluid.

He picked it up from the repair shop yesterday. Drove it around for maybe 20-30 miles over the course of 3-4 hours and when traveling at approx 55mph, he noticed that it was revving really high and was not engaging the transmission anymore. So he pulled over and had it towed. Air temp was high 80's.

This truck is not worth putting in alot of money to fix this issue. I was hoping that there was some common issue with these A4LD trannys that I could fix or have fixed to get another 10-15 thousand miles or so out of this thing before having to junk it!!!

Thanks!

 

[lt80racerdad]

I am not sure if it is actually blowing out or what???

I did find some dripping under the vehicle from time to time.

I used the term blowing out, because it seems to happen on warmer days while driving!!

 

[91Explored]

Regulator ?

You might check the regulator at the vacuum tree to see if the rubber hose is soft from sucking fluid up and burning it in the engine.

 

[wood1]

Likely you have one of two issues. You would need to identify where the fluid is leaking from to know for sure. If the fluid is being blown out of the breather tube the governor bore has groves worn from the seals and that will require it to be bored out and sleeved (disassemble trans, etc). If the fluid is running out of the bell housing, you have the famous A4LD front seal problem. That one has bitten me on the er... rear end as well. The fluid blows past the front pump seal and can be caused by a worn converter bushing, bad seal, or get this one... if you are lucky your engine coolant it low. These trannys are sensitive to high temps and if your engine coolant is low this will make your engine run hotter and the coolant will also be hotter. The transmission will overheat due to the radiator's built in transmission cooler.