95 explorer lost second gear??

[nawusa]

I was driving up a hill on the back roads on my way home from work yesterday and felt a clunk.... auto trans dropped back into first gear as if second gear had just imploded. The rest of the way home the truck would drive perfectly fine in first gear but would skip second and go directly to third. Drove fine in third and overdrive as well. The trans has never slipped, missed a gear, or shown any indication of wear. It has been maintained meticulously and had an aftermarket external cooler and filter most of its life. Any chance this is something as simple as a shift solenoid? Or am I screwed....

O/D light was blinking too....never a good sign.

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks

 

[nawusa]

***Trans has 146k miles on it

 

[Jarred767]

It won't be any help, but...

I had the same thing happen on my '95 - blinking O/D light and all. I knew nothing about that truck and was oblivious on maintenance at the time and the truck had almost 200k miles on it so I just let it be. I had gotten it for free, it was a work vehicle, and was planning on literally running it into the ground (and "saving" money by doing no maintenance except oil changes).

Well, I ran it without 2nd gear for almost two year and over 30k more miles and just after 230k the radiator and a head finally blew and off to the pick and pull she went (after I picked and pulled all useable decent parts). I started over with my '98 (this time taking care of it). It never got any worse, but accelerating onto freeways was always interesting to say the least.

Like I said, it wasn't any help

 

[nawusa]

That helps a bit knowing I could still drive it worse case! lol but trying to limp it home in rush hour traffic yesterday was not too much fun....many dirty looks.

 

[Jarred767]

Oh, that's what those looks were for...

The worst part about it was going up any hills. If it was in 3rd, and wanted to drop down a gear, it went all the way to 1st and shot the RPMs way up. I learned to get around using the fewest hills possible. Good luck man!