Hello and help with a difficult tranny question.

[robrc]

Hey everybody, I was very happy to find this site and love all the info.
I have a 94 Explorer that has 133,000 mi., 4" Super Lift, 4.10 gears, 32" tires, and an electric locker in the rear. Has done fine for about 4 years with this set up and have pulled a pop-up trailer numerous times. I started noticing that when the tranny warmed up to normal operating range, around 180 degrees sensing from the pan, it would want to start out from a stop in second and sometimes third gear. Had it rebuilt with same results. Took back to shop and they had to replace the valve body again. Seemed to be doing fine until we took it up to the mountains to check out a ghost town, all pavement with no 4 wheeling. The temp rose to 210, which isn't great, and it started with the same thing, second gear starts. Have in posession and plans to install new tranny cooler with fan. Any ideas why the second gear starts?
It's currently back in the shop but I don't hold high hopes they'll figure it out.
Thanks for any ideas.
Rob

 

[1Aauto]

Welcome to the site

 

[1AJeremyD]

Welcome to the forum! Sounds like the enemy could be heat. Might want to try getting a bigger transmission cooler and keep the temps lower. You could just be overworking the transmission to the point where it's going into almost a limp mode.

 

[robrc]

Thanks. Yeah, I bought a new tranny cooler with more passes and an electric fan. Soon as I get the explorer back I'll be installing it.