Glacier991 I have a question about my 5R55E

[strocket]

Well heres just a brief story on what has happened. I have a 2001 Sport Trac and a few weeks ago my tranny started to flare really bad going from 2nd to 3rd. I would have to let off the gas to get it to shift. I thought that it was just the normal flare that all of these transmissions have so I didnt worry about it. Well yesterday it did it again, let off the gas, it shifted, and I was on my way. Well I pull into the driveway and I couldnt even get all the way up. Almost as if I was in neutral but it was still gripping a little bit. So I put it in 1st and drove up. Not knowing what had happened I wanted to go for a drive around the block so I put it in reverse to back out, and I didnt have reverse either. So I just rolled down the drive way and put it in first, and then shifted to 2nd, and then to drive. Everything worked that time so I drove around and back into the driveway. Then I tried reverse again it worked. Put it in drive to go back up the drive way and it was the same as it was before. So I used 1st again, but then that had the same kind of slippage. So I tried 2nd, and that worked. Then I parked it and came on here to start reading as to why it was doing that. After reading I figured that the sep. plate had a blown gasket. So I decided to go ahead and do the tsb kit, new sep. plate, sonnax boost valve, superior shift kit, and also the sonnax end plug kit. Today I went to remove the valve body hoping to find a blown gasket... but no blown gaskets. So then I thought maybe it was the epc solenoid. Well when I set the VB on the work bench to take them out and test them I noticed that There were brass and aluminum shavings. Not alot but enough to know that the shouldnt be there. They were on the sep. plate about 2 or 3 inches to the right of the TCC and EPC solenoid. What do you think those shavings could be from? What would have caused the tranny to just start shifting like that?

Thanks in advance for your help DR. Glacier

 

[Glacier991]

metal shavings are not a good thing inside a transmission. Something is self destructing and the shavings will cause close tolernce parts to lock or or stick ar even fail during normal operation. There really is no "buy a little time" kinda fix when you are seeing metal shavings. It is time to tear it down, find the failure and fix it.

I wish I had better news for you. I've torn down Valve Bodies where I found spools locked my metal shavings. The EPC is particularly unhappy with ANY contamination to boot.

 

[strocket]

Yeah I was expecting that. I plan on doing the work myself. I have some money to dip into to buy a new one, but i would rather do it myself and learn how these trannies work. Ive been doing my research and I think that the gold shavings were from the sprags. I wanted to buy a tear down manual but I saw in another thread that there is one that you recommend. Could you give me the title on that? Since im doing this rebuild on my own and I have all the time in the world, I figured to take one for the team and take a bunch of pics and list the things I did and what I found. I love how these kind of forums work and I appreciate the help I receive and would like to give some back. So be looking for a new thread from me on the rebuild. If you have any tips or advice for me before I get started, or maybe something you come across while in the rebuild please share Thank you for your help thus far tho!!!

 

[BrooklynBay]

The Ford 3 ring binder is thorough. The ATSG manuals are pretty good, although I've caught some minor mistakes in the A4LD manual. WWW.FordCDs.Com is an excellent source for the Ford CD. Mitchell also makes a CD, but I don't have a link to download one from them.

 

[Glacier991]

The "gold" you see is actually bronze. It is used in bushings and thrust washers. My guess is you have a rear planetary thrust washer disintegrating. Why do I guess that? I dunno, just a hunch. Be curious to know when you get it apart what you find.

PM me and I can give you some leads on parts and some recommendations.