Help Please!!!! Major Transmission issues

[PEAR0119]

Well, we were doing a bit of offroading in the 2003 Explorer, then all of a sudden we see some smoke coming from under the truck. We immediately stop and get out and take a look. We see nothing, no fluid just a burning smell. Now for the crappy part, we have completely lost 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear:thumbdwn:!! 4th, 5th and reverse still work perfectly. We are thinking that we burnt out a band in the transmission. Are we on the right track? We are kinda stuck up here at the cottage and are praying that we can limp it home with only 4th and 5th for forward gears.

Would there be anything else that we can possibly check or do up here that may give us those gears back. Now we have very limited tools and no way to jack up the car.

Also, once we get it home we will most likely be pulling the transmission and checking it out. Its kinda nice the fact that my old man used to rebuild transmissions back in the day to get though college, so we are confident that we would be able to rebuild it ourselves.

Any help would be extremely helpful.

 

[Argentimage]

the 4x4 transfer motor? What happens when you switch in & out of 4x4 mode?

 

[NHarris]

Subscribing.

 

[PEAR0119]

the 4x4 transfer motor? What happens when you switch in & out of 4x4 mode?

We tried both 4x4 auto and high same issue. We have no low gears, it revs as if it were in neutral in 1st, 2nd and 3rd. 3rd gear we get slight forward movement but very little. 4th, 5th and OD work properly, it upshifts and downshifts properly in those gears. We can still drive but have to start in 4th gear and more then likely will not make it up the big hills we have to climb to get home. We are going to bring a tow rope just incase I do have to pull him up the hill.

 

[Vette76]

I feel your pain. My tranny went out in a similar fit of glory and I had never beat on it or had even taken the thing off road before! The guy that has rebuilt every transmission for my cars over the years (Mustang, Camaro and Vette) said that he wouldn't even crack the 5r55w open. Said it was the biggest grenade that he has EVER seen! Sounds like you burnt out the clutches.

I wish you the best. For me...I settled for a used tranny from the junkyard with no warranty and the darn thing still cost me $1,200. To say that I'm less than pleased with my Ex would be an understatement. Every time I see a 2001 - 2005 pull up beside me at the gas pump I tell the driver that they're living on borrowed time. That usually gets their attention! I suspect that I'm probably responsible for recruiting at least a couple dozen new members to this site

 

[PEAR0119]

Well we made it home!!!! We took a long running start to the big hill and we made it up. Funny thing though, when we got back into the city and after a little bit of city driving the lower gears (1st, 2nd and 3rd) came back. Putting the tranny into gear is very rough and there is a lot of clanging going on but once in gear it shifts smoothly and all. How would the gears of come back after an hour of driving? There is still a lot of slipping in those lower gears but they are there and can be used.