update on mine..
I got my 02 Explorer 4.0 2WD 5R55W 6 years ago. When I got it, the trans was slipping bad so I took it to AAMCO and they rebuilt it also did the servobore sleeves. I also got the Lifetime Warranty because I did a lot of research on these trans and knew I was going to have problems every 70,000mi's or so. So like I was right. Less than 7mos ago it started to shift hard in 2nd and shudder/hunt between D and OD while doing normal freeway speeds (happens once fluid is warmed up, the OD light would flash rapidly when it did that until I would turn off the car then turn it back on). Side note, I called about the Lifetime Warranty and I had to produce the paperwork to have it serviced under the warranty, but since the car was broken into and the papers lost with other items, I could not produce any papers and that company does not have any computer base showing I purchased it, even called corporate offices and said I was out of luck. So I did ordered the o-ring servo-bore kit and did it pretty much like brentburton's post without taking any exuaust piping off, just the heat-shields and using the crowbar, pain to do. I could see the brass sleeves while it was opened up, also did the 400 grit around a pencil to just slightly take out any rough edges of the bore, but just a little, I did not grind away. Other things I did was change the filter, filled the fluid twice and replaced with Mercon V, also tightened the bands IAW techman. The fluid that was in it was pretty clean to start and the pan had no metallic in the fluid or anything in the pan or magnet other than that fine fuzzy black stuff just barely on the top of the magnet. Put it all back together and took it out for a test drive and no more hard-shifts in second, but still have the shudder while driving at highway speeds (mostly between 65-75mph while its shifting into OD, and more-so going up inclines). I took it on a trip from LA to Vegas and it had the shudder while on inclines mostly and the OD light didn't come on, until the trip home... it started to flash about half-way back home and funny thing is, for the next 100mi's there were no shudders and trans worked wonderfully, but the light was blinking, so we pulled over with 50mi's left on our trip home, shut the car off, started back on the highway with the OD light now off, and the shudder was back. So I then did a lot of research thinking I could fix this with a new shift-kit and solenoid pack(rebuilt) from TRANSGO. All parts came in and did the job this weekend. I took the pan and gasket off after draining fluid (always use a clean glass jar and catch fluid coming out to get a good look at it) the fluid was still very clean, took off filter, reverse-servo, solenoid pack, and valve-body. After inspecting the pan gasket, separator plate and gaskets, they looked good to me. I started doing the shifter-kit which has a pretty good video online someone did for their 5R55S. It was pretty easy. Turns out I already had that same kit in it from rebuild years earlier, but replaced with the new kit any way. I soaked the solenoid pack in Mercon V while I did the valve-body. I then placed the separator back on the valve-body and put it back up into the trans (I took a long thin box and drew out the valve-body, filter, reverse-servo, and solenoid pack and punched holes in the drawings so when I took a bolt out, I just put it in the designated hole to make sure I put them back exactly, also pretty handy to not lose any. Valve body back on and tightned IAW techman sequence/torque, I then installed the reverse-servo, then the solenoid pack, a new filter and pan, all IAW sequence/torque. Another thing I did before I started this job was reset the brain on the car so it would later re-learn shift values and left the battery disconnected till I was all done. I filled the fluid by the book, vehicle was level, had pumped 6qts prior to starting ($5 handpump from HF and nipple bought on amazon), started it, let it warm up, shifted through all gears and let the fluid get to the point of first signs of dribbling out the nipple. ( I was also following steps during this time to correctly let the car learn the new values I purged prior to starting this job). I took it out for 2 test drives. First one was to run the fluid in the trans and other was to learn shift values, and then came back, leveled the car and checked the fluid a 2nd time. A few hours later I took it out again, both test drives it still has the shudder in the same gears when giving slight acceleration as well shifting into OD with slight acceleration. Same symptoms. But this time the OD light did start blinking rapidly near the end of the 2nd test drive as I was nearing the highway exit. But I turned off the car and restarted it and drove and it stayed off. Just got in to write this. Not sure what to do now. What I wrote is not a go-by to do any repairs, just wrote what I did. Retired Navy engineer who likes working on his own cars, but this has me stumped. Also, what's the easiest way to read the codes on this without a scantool, is there a way to jumper and read?
