Help!! Transmission Blues!!!!

[tdawoud]

Hey guys I am an avid reader of the forum but have never really posted before. I hope you guys can help.

I have a '94 explorer, auto A4LD tranny, with 4x4. When the tranny is cold it seems to shift ok. As it warms up in a couple of miles it won't shift out of first gear. Before it started this it would randomly sift roughly. Now it just won't shift out of first when it gets hot. I souldn't have put it off but oh well. Do i definetly need to rebuild it or is there anything else i can try. If I do need to rebuild it how hard is it really. I am an avid when it comes to working on cars. I just don't feel good about going to a tranny shop. Please help.


Thanks
TJ

 

[Opera House]

Speed Governor

I wondered just how hard it is to remove the governor from the transmission while it is still in the car. So I decided to take mine out of my 92. This is prior to a total rebuild I am doing. Removed the pan, both drive shafts, removed the cats (think this is optional), and dropped the cross member holding the transmission. Support the transmission with a jack. After removing the bolts to the transfer case, I pulled it out a little an let it swing down. Then I pulled it out more and let it drop to some folded carets. Had to remove the tranny mount to get at the transmission extension bolts. Transmission extension bolts to the transmission and mounts the transfer case. The only internal connection is the park and is easily removed. The governor valve is then just mounted with two bolts.

Remove it carefully, all the pieces will fall out. There is the outer weight, close to the shaft. followed by a spring, then the primary valve that goes into the govenor body. Although mine worked, it was very sticky. The steel valve gets little scoring marks on it that you can polish out with some very fine wet or dry and some oil. Valve should move freely from its own weight. Rebuild kit for gasket is about $27, SPX filter $10, from bulkparts.com manual if you are curious is $16. These are easy transmissions to work on. Dropping pan is optional but you want to change the filter.

If yours is sticking, it is because of wear and not contamination. I have seen these valve bodies on some sites for only about $30.

Not a hard job at all. I think a lot of these are on the brink of failing. The only tricky part is getting the parking rod back into the extension housing. Put in park to extend rod, then shift into into low to bolt on the housing.