Flywheel broken?

[jerem0621]

I just got my 95 Explorer back from my best friend who has had it for about a year. The Explorer is not running right now. The starter stopped catching on the fly wheel and the tranny leaked all of the fluid out of it (after it stopped running, thankfully)

What do you all think I am looking at to fix this ride. Do you think the Flywheel simply became lose, busted a seal and simply needs to have a seal replaced and the flywheel tightened up. I have never pulled a tranny before, I am fairly handy with tools but I have never removed a tranny before.

95 Limited 4x4, 3.73 gears, 4.0 v6

 

[swetrid]

The flexplates do break on the 4.0L ohv but i don't think it will cause the trans leak.

 

[69Mach1]

What kind of "best friend" brings back a vehicle a year later, in that condition?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

The flexplates do break on the 4.0L ohv but i don't think it will cause the trans leak.

it can. i had a 96 that i bought to resell with the same problem. the flex plate broke into a billion parts, and took the torque converter with it. i will lay money down that the converter is cracked somewhere.

 

[ranger7ltr]

You might have 2 seperate problems here...

The flexplate cracking in the center is a problem as stated by others...But I would check the tranny for the source of the leak before disassembly...

The front seal will not leak out fluid unless the tranny is super overfilled and the overflow would drain the overage first...And the seal area would need to be under pressure to leak which means the engine would be running for that area to leak...Or the tq is cracked from the flexplate...

The only way I can think of a tranny losing all its fluid would be the pan gasket, pan with a hole in it, or a crack in the case or extension housing...I forgot about a missing or broken rear yoke not sealing up the tranny seal would leak most of the fluid too...

 

[jerem0621]

He didn’t bring it back to me. I repossessed it. He made me one small payment over the last year, the damage happened to the Ex in May or June. He was gonna fix it, gonna fix it, etc. Finally he found some shop that was going to let him pay payments on the repair. That’s when I had enough, my name is on the title and I wasn’t going to get a huge repair bill put on me when he didn’t pay it. This guy is my buddy, has been for a long time but this kind of stuff hurts friendships. Lesson learned I suppose. Sell to friends? Sure. Finance to friends, no way!

Thank you all for your help, I am going to pull the tranny, I have been looking for an excuse to buy a Transmission lift anyway. LOL. Any chance I can get this tranny out with just a floor jack? Sorry, but I have never done anything like pulling a tranny before. I just refuse to pay big $$ to fix a vehicle worth $2000.00 (if that). Plus I want to learn how to do my own repairs.

Thanks!

 

[jake122288]

Thank you all for your help, I am going to pull the tranny, I have been looking for an excuse to buy a Transmission lift anyway. LOL. Any chance I can get this tranny out with just a floor jack? Sorry, but I have never done anything like pulling a tranny before. I just refuse to pay big $$ to fix a vehicle worth $2000.00 (if that). Plus I want to learn how to do my own repairs.

Thanks!

i've dropped a couple transmission nows and all i do is use a floor jack with a 2x4 long enough to go across the bottom of the pan the 2x4 keeps the weight spread out so you dont dent/damage your trans pan. its not too difficult if you ask me but you first time it can be time consuming.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

or if you have or can get some metal, make a base for your floor jack that is the same size as the trans pan with a peg on each corner to support the pan.

 

[imp]

Just a word of warning: these transmissions are very heavy, awkward, do not balance well on the small support of a common floor jack, and if they "get away" on you, can cause all sorts of bad things to happen very suddenly.....
injury to you, breakage to parts, or both.

First time, HAVE SOMEONE HELP YOU, if you are bent on doing this job......
my gut feel from having "been there" is, if you have never yanked a small automotive manual transmission out of a car, tackling this "first" may prove to be an event you will wish had not gone ahead.......imp

 

[vroomzoomboom]

this little write up may or may not help. its in Swedish, so you will have to translate it.

http://grufmanbil.se/webshop/mektips/DemonteraVaxelladaExplorer.pdf

oringinal thread

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=244560