1994 transmission front seal?

[94explorerxlt245]

Hello everyone. I bought a 1994 explorer 2 weeks ago from my aunt. For the last five years it has been our farm vehicle not being ran much since my uncle passed 5 years ago. Ibought it to deliver mail in on snow days. It worked great for 2 days. I was finishing up the other day when i had to start reving engine to get trans to engage. I got it hauled back to the house. It had been run in 4x4 most of the day. Just wandering if yall think seal blew out from not being run much in past couple years or what. Going to start getting trans out in the next while. When i go back im thinking i may add an extra trans cooler. One more thing is coolant is low in rad but engine is not overheating. Could that contributed to the seal failure. Thanks for any help.

 

[arco777]

Coolant should not have changed anything. Check the trans fluid level. If the front seal blows, it will usually dump the trans fluid out the front housing and it'll get all over the place (done it). In my case the seal blew out from the trans overheating, but it actually relaxed back into place after cooling and has held fine since then.

Adding a second transmission cooler is a good idea if you live in a warmer climate or drive off road a lot. The stock cooler is inadequate for most situations.

 

[BrooklynBay]

The radiator has a separate section for transmission fluid. If the coolant level is low, then the transmission will overheat, and blow out the front seal.

 

[94explorerxlt245]

Ok. When i looked in rad i didnt see coolant. Hopefully thats my cause

 

[arco777]

The radiator has a separate section for transmission fluid. If the coolant level is low, then the transmission will overheat, and blow out the front seal.

Hate to question you but I'm not sure that's 100% correct; the integral trans fluid heat exchanger in the radiator serves mainly to warm up the transmission fluid more quickly from cold starts, was my understanding. After the engine is at operating temperature, the coolant is generally hotter than the transmission fluid anyways so it does not benefit the transmission unless trans temp exceeds 190+ degrees. With stock trans cooling and driving off road or in heavy traffic I have rarely seen trans fluid temp reach 190. At that point I don't think the coolant heat exchanger would help much since there's little temperature differential. It is a common modification to bypass this entirely and rely only on the separate transmission cooler, either factory or with an additional cooler inline. Without any coolant in the radiator, the effect should be similar to a bypassed exchanger. I think the engine would overheat first.

 

[Rhett]

Ok. When i looked in rad i didnt see coolant. Hopefully thats my cause

That's most likely not the cause of your no-shift. But you SHOULD refill and burp the coolant system, or else you'll eventually have overheating.

Instead, it is probably (let's hope) just low fluid level in the transmission. When that happens, you get no gear engagement. As for your losing trans fluid -- there could be a couple of spots for leakage but my money would be on the vacuum modulator (very common.) There is a vacuum hose running to a hard fitting on the top of the engine...pull this vac line off and see if there is trans fluid in it. You can also pull other vac hoses that are easily accessible (like the brake booster hose) and check those, too.

 

[94explorerxlt245]

Thanks for all the responses. I finally got trans out today. I decided to take it to a trans shop and he is going to inspect everything and put in new bushing and seal. Hopefully be good to go after this.