help . new uk member with problems.

[bushman8]

Hi folks. the name is Steve. live in the U.k. bought a 98 4.0 ohc explorer last year and been having a few problems. quite a rare vehicle over here and although sold through ford dealerships they know f**k all about them and want to know even less. Its got rattley camchains and i know its a common problem but with about 95k miles on the clock is getting worse and i cant afford the £1500+ that ive been quoted to have a main dealer change the guides,chains and tensioners etc and it looks a ***** of a job to do at home. rattles tend to go away when warm if used sensibly. but biggest problem is that just before christmas, the flex plate in front of the torque converter exploded, not knowing exactly what it was and just into the xmas holidays managed to get a second hand tranny (5r55e) with a torqueconverter and flex plate and found a transmission/ gearbox centre who changed it all over day after boxing day for me. after collection it seemed to drive ok but a couple of days later the tranny o/d light started flashing indicating a fault, did all the normal checks and spoke to a couple of transmission shops who suggested that it might be the turbine speed sensor indicating convertor slip but it doesnt feel like its slipping but now when you drive it up to 3000 rpm on normal throttle, it drives perfectly but if you put your foot down, the engine doesnt want to rev, it has no power high up, it hangs on to lower gears and doesnt want to change up until you back off the throttle. if you give it a large foot full the kickdown comes in fairly violently, has no power and immediately changes up a couple of gears.. i have fitted larger tyres (275-70-16) to improve handling and economy and although they have indeed given the explorer a better ride and economy, i wondered if because they have increased the rolling diameter, therefore the wheel sensors are picking up wrong data and sending it back to the ecu, if that could be causing a problem. Any help of advise would be very grateful. many thanks.
steve. steve-green@ntlworld.com