'94 Explorer Transmission Trouble.

[bjgraphicspro]

I have a '94 Explorer Ltd, 4wd, w/156k mi. Over 2 months, I've progressively had problems getting it to go in forward gears. Reverse is fine. The fluid was a little low and filling it got me about a week of normal operation. Then, it wouldn't start out in OD, but would in D. Then only in 2 or 1. Once it did engage (in any gear) - I was good to go (switch into the proper gears) - until I parked it. The last 3 days, I've had to start out by backing out of my drive then coasting down a hill while gassing it until it finally engaged. When leaving work (flat parking area), friends have pushed me until it engages. Functions perfectly once it engages. Yesterday we replaced the filter, drained the tranny and put in all new fluid. While doing so, we checked for metal shavings in the pan (None) and the old fluid was not sludgy or dirty. This did not fix it. It improved the "driving down the highway" ease (hadn't notice a problem before - but, the improvement was noticeable), but it still will not engage without a hill or friends.
A couple local mechanics (via description only) have said it's the forward clutch. And requires a rebuild at well over $1000 to repair. I have no way to get that kind of money anytime soon.
Is this likely an accurate diagnosis?
(No offense to mechanics - I grew up with many. I love them. However, I know that there's a tendency to figure if you got to do the crappy job of pulling a tranny, you may as well do the whole deal and only do it once. And, get paid for it.)
Any help/advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[mikeinri]

You should post this in the transmission section, you may get better response there.

If you're losing fluid such that you have to add to it once a week, and it's not coming out on the ground, my money is on the trans vac modulator.

A quick thing to check is to remove the tranny vac line from the tree. If there is tranny fluid in there, your modulator is bad. This is a pretty cheap part, but is a pain to access (it's on the side, near the top of the tranny, and buried behind the cat). Do a search here, you will find instructions to access and replace this by removing the seats and going through the floor (yes, you read that correctly).

Hope this helps.

Mike

 

[BrooklynBay]

Adjust the bands. If that doesn't work, then you should rebuild the valve body. Check the sticky thread on the top of the transmission section called the A4LD rebuild diary. I've moved this thread to the transmission section, and deleted your other thread.