HELP!!! Manual transmission problem!

[93ExplorerXLT]

Hi, I'm new here, and glad to see there is a such a site! I have a 93 XLT 5 speed... this is one of the best and well kept explorers, i took the best care of it since new. Anyhow, I was driving the other day and found that i couldn't shift easily and then pulled over and found the car still wanted to move in neutral with the foot off the clutch. as if it was not fully out of gear. I took it to my shop and the first thing we did was change the shifter bushing which was broken... still the car won't go thru the gears easily and when it is in neatral it wants to move and makes a low whining noise as if it is still in gear. with the car off and the car in neautral and foot off the clutch, it won't even roll.

It would be a shame to junk this beauty :-( :-( but it isn't worth the money to do a re-build if it needs one!

Does ANYBODY know what this is? has anybody seen this before? my mechanic is scratching his head.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[JoshC]

Hello, welcome to the site, hope you enjoy it!

I'm not the best guy to talk to you about trannys, but it could just be a worn out clutch. The fingers on the pressure plate maybe sticking and not letting the clutch disenage. I don't know, i'm just trying to get you started

 

[Rob_B]

Same thing happened in my 95 F-150 that I used to have. Check the clutch fluid level, that's what my problem was, it was completly out. On my F-150 it the clutch fluid was next to the brake reservoir on the firewall. It might be your clutch still, but it's definatly worth a shot.

 

[williecume]

i would be a good idea to change the clutch, pressure, pilot bearring the in flywheel. resurface the flywheel, and change the slave cylinder. i just did that to my explorer $150 for the clutch kit, $52 for the slave kit, and $13 for the pilot bearing the in flywheel. our friends own a tranny shop and surfaced our flywheel for free. but i dont think it should cost no more than $30 to resurface it.

 

[williecume]

our 97 was hard to shift into reverse and first. after we changed all the things i mentioned above it now shifts like a new tranny. might check with a tranny shop and see if they can give you an estimate for the parts and labor.

 

[93ExplorerXLT]

hmmm

well, the clutch fluid level is full... we're getting it up in the air to check the tranny fluid level. one thing i failed to mention is that my clutch was getting really heavy to push... to the point where i think my knee popped.

my mechanic is thinking it may be internal where the fork or something isn't working right... i mean all i was doing was just entering the highway and trying to shift to third and it wouldn't go... no warning signs or anything... except the heavy clutch and maybe a loud noisy throw out bearing... does this sound typical for a clutch? why won't it move in neautral with the car in neautral? why does it want to move in neautral?

if it's the clutch, i'll fix it... he said it will cost about $1,000 including parts and resurfaced flywheel... is that about right? that doesn't include the slave or anything... just clutch, bearing, press plate and resurface... and labor.

 

[93ExplorerXLT]

oh yeah...

forgot to ask... does anyone recommend aftermarket clutch parts or should i buy from ford?

 

[navyX04]

That is exactly what mine did. Sorry to say, but with mine the gears were fused together and that was it. What happens is because these trannys use automatic transmission fluid it leaks out easily, unlike others that use thicker gear lube. After a while they wear out because of the extra heat generated by the insufficient fluid level. The last stage is the gears just come apart. It isn't a pretty sight when you pull the cover and look inside. Mine cost $700 to rebuild, with me doing the pulling. Might be the clutch, but how you described it is pretty typical. The telltale sign is you can't move it in neutral. That pretty much rules out the clutch.

 

[williecume]

me and my dad did the clutch and stuff. we did not open the tranny at all. it cost us about $250 total for us to change it. we did not have to pay for the flywheel to be resurfaced. i think it took us about 4 hours to do the job total. you will want to drop the section of the exhaust that crosses from the exhaust manifolds to the cat. convertors.

the slave cylinder in inside the bell housing of the tranny. once you pull the tranny off the truck it is 2 10mm bolts. that is probably the easiest thing to do. we
also put synthetic fluid in the tranny for fluid so far everything is still working fine.

 

[williecume]

i got mine clutch kit from autozone.

 

[93ExplorerXLT]

why?

Why is it still driveable then?

 

[FLYIN 5.0]

If I were you I would NOT have your dealer do your clutch They are way over priced. Also I would say that you should go with an aftermarket clutch like a CENTERFORCE single disc. When you have the job done replace all the clutch parts including the slave cylinder and the pilot bushing. I did all this on my ranger and it worked out great. I had zero problems afterward.
Before you do your clutch make sure your tranny checks out.

 

[navyX04]

You could still drive mine, it was stuck in 3rd or some other high gear. I think 2 or 3 gears were reused when it was rebuilt. Two were toast, you could hardly make out where the teeth were. If I were you I would drain the fluid out. If you have lost a gear you should get some metal chunks coming out with the fluid. In my opinion you are wasting your time chasing a bad clutch. It wouldn't matter at all what the condition of the clutch system is if you can't move it in neutral. By the way, if somebody wants $1000 to do a clutch I would take it to another shop. That is about $500 more than it should cost. Maybe your area is more expensive though, I don't know.

 

[FLYIN 5.0]

BTW I have seen a bad pilot bearing cause some weard problems.

 

[93ExplorerXLT]

i feel like i lost a best friend... this truck is perfect otherwise.. everything works and there isn't a ding or scratch on the car! :-( what would u guys do if it is the tranny? the car isn't worth the dough, but it is worth it b/c of the condition it's in. i mean it's perfect.

 

[navyX04]

If you can do the work yourself I would fix it. If you can't it would end up costing more than the vehicle is probably worth. It really isn't that hard, just takes a while. If you sell it, it probably isn't worth much with a bad tranny. I bought mine for $200 with a bad tranny. I have a lot more than that in it now but I have a good piece in the end.

 

[williecume]

if you really like your truck and it runs great them it is worth putting a little bit of money into. if you dont want to put money into it i'll give $300 for it.

i think it would be worth putting a little money into.

 

[gavin]

this is only my opinion..
it's a manual... it "still wants to move" even with the shifter in Neutral? if the shifter is in neutral, then it has been disengaged from the gears. Therefore I don't see how it's the tranny at all.
Now if it's still moving with the clutch pushed in, then that would be a clutch fluid pressure problem.