Lets solve another 5R55E Problem

[bchess]

History: 145 k miles, serviced at 30k, cooler added at 90 k.

once upon a time, Over a long period of time the Drive trane developed a clunking sound when coasting down a large hill, no other slips. then all of a sudden going down hill one fine day, I lose all drive, The trannie felt like it was in neutral, I coasted down the hill and up the otherside came to a stop at a stop light, the vehicle would not move, but the engine would rev up. I tried to put the gear shifter in to 1,2,d n,and r and no movement. tried to put it in park and it started to grind. I shut the engine off and put it in park, started up engine and put vehicle in drive and off I went. It seemed to slip and the o/d light flashes, I drove it home and parked it.

Day 2....Start, drive, shifts ok from 1 to 2 to 3 about 32 miles perhour it won't shift higher and the od light starts to flash. (od light stopes every time you stop the engine and then reappears flashing at about 32 mies per hr.

Day 3,4,5.......start reading everything every where, found explorer forum.

Day 6.....drop trannie pan for my 1st time fluid was as expected, dark, checked the bottom of pan, found some little metal barrels just like the ones in the Gasket, no other parts or parts of parts were present, I wiped her down real good and replaced the Filter and gasket, tighting down thumb tight with just the barrel of the socket, then just a small sinch on each nut, added (3 1/2) quarts Mercon V at $3.25 a quart. connected the battery cables, and off the test drive........failed again at 32 mph and the od light started to flash.

Day 7,8,and 9 ..........read some more called shops talked to mechanics at Ford, The Parts guys were great copied a few pages out of the SERVICE manual which is completely different then a Chiltons REPAIR manual at your local Library.

Day 10 figured it was time to purchase an OBD II and get the codes. I Purchased an Actron at Pep boys for $99.00 with $20.00 rebate. I needed to know which codes were pulled to determine which solenoid or sensor is acting up. plugged her in the dtc turned on the ignition, darn it if it PASSED everything! started her up and drove till od light came on still no codes.

A lot has happen in the past 10 days some funny and some sad.

yes I did loosen the overdrive nut on the outside drivers side of trannie, yes it did stop turning after about 2 1/2 turnes and yes I did back it off and retighten the 3/4 inch nut.

I did buy the top and bottom gaskets to the Valve body. but was not ready to disassemble unless needed.

I do have a good schematic of the VB and have identified the solenoids but have not purchased.

4 shifting control (7g484) $ 58.12 from Ford
Pressure control (7g383) $ 134.07
Torque converter control (7g136) $ 84.08

A couple of questions:

Craftsman Torque wrench 3/8 drive is all I could afford $ 75.00 (in/lbs)
didn't see a 1/4 in drive.

Rebuilt VB from the Internet about $240 ( it say's it comes with all the solenoids) that would be a bargain I think considering just the parts from Ford would be more, Ford wants about $500 for the Valve body but it wasn't clear to me if the solenoids were included. Has anybody actually bought a rebuilt Valve Body from the Internet?

or test and rebuild My self

Yes time is critical we only have one working car at this time ( I do rent from Enterprise over the weekend for $9.99 a day).

To any one who responds thanks in advance.

Well let the questions start, I'm ready to follow your directions and LETS GETTER DONE !!

 

[bchess]

Dropped the Pan today, checked the shifting solenoids first, pulled each one and tested with 12 volts, all clicked. 1 shifting solenoid seemed looser than the rest just sitting in the valve body not sure why, could be a worn o ring, it was the one closest to the reverse servo, on that side of the body. also removed the TTC solenoid and it test ok, at least it click when 12 volts was sent to it.

I was getting ready to pull the Turbine Speed sensor but stopped short, don't know how I might test that one.

Any help would be great, thanks.

 

[bchess]

where do I find a thread on adding a drain to the pan I can see now how important thats gonna be.

 

[Glacier991]

It's real easy. All you need is a 1/2 inch drill bit. Most auto stores (autozone coming to mind as being one with this) have a display board in the oil section with replacement oil drain plugs. Neatly hidden on that board is an "add on" drain plug. Costs about $5. Drill the pan on a selected flat spot, install the plug (it's pretty obvious how it works) and voila, instant drain plug.


As for the rest. I am a little confused about the procedure you followed to adjust the OD band. You probably did it right, it sounded a little odd. Done properly, you should hold the adjuster bolt, loosen the locknut at least 3 turns. then tighten the adjusting bolt to the specified torque setting .... then back off from there 2-1/2 turns. Holding the bolt, retighten the locknut.

I'm trying to visualize what it was metal wise you found in the pan. THAT is never a good sign.

Finally if you rebuild or replace the valve body, a complete fluid change using the generally accepted method of flushing would be a good idea so when you put the new one in with a new filter you don't contaminate it. (do a search on here, several good threads on it).

Yours is a situation in which a transmission presure gauge would be helpful. You have pressure taps for several circuits.

 

[bchess]

metal pieces in pan are from the gasket. I noticed that about 4 of the spacers on the pan gasket were in the pan, they may have fell in when pulling the pan off. I may have slid it one way or the other and they could have fallen in. the only reason I know what they are is because there also on the replacement gasket I got from Ford

 

[Glacier991]

ok, whew.

 

[bchess]

Just got done putting all back the way I found her.

No change in the shifting and the o/d light comes back on flashing no codes found on the OB II, hmm well at least it still moves. Well sorta . while I was going around the block there wasn't any change, but when I was going from reverse to forward in the drive way a few times after adding a little more fluid, the car would rev up, but not move, either way. just like the original problem, Hmm....Servo?? bad bands??? or Valve body????

 

[bchess]

The Tow truck cometh, and the tow truck taketh away. I'll let you guys know what they find.

 

[bchess]

Had her towed ti Atomic Transmission, Theey haven't been able diagnois the entire problem yet, but I talked to the " Tech " and he says the transfer case is stuuck in 4 wheel low.

I wondering if this is better or worse thhan a tranny problem

whats the going price on a t case repair?

 

[IZwack]

if the t-case is stuck in 4LO, you should notice a huge change in how the car drives. i mean your explorer should be shifting gears at like half the speed it would normally be shifting at. if the problem is the t-case shift motor, there are a few threads on this message board that go over how to clean the shift motor, nurture it, and so on. if its something else in the t-case, then you'll probably end up opening that t-case.

but if the t-case is indeed going wack and you need to open it, then a swap might be easier for you. look around your local salvage yards for one. also try looking in the "For Sale" part of the message board, some1 might be selling a t-case that suits your Explorer (i think you have the Borg Warner 4405). depending on the yard you go to, a t-case will run anywhere between maybe 50 dollars up to a few hundred.

 

[bchess]

05-04-2005, 12:17 AM #10
IZwack

Thanks for the info, I think its gonna run me about $1100.00, ouch!. The shop called this afternoon and said the inside of the gear box was a mess. they would need to rebuild most of it, they have some of the parts ther probably from pieced out cases, not sure about what parts were salvageable. I would like to watch the rebuild but I don't think thats gonna happen.

Anyone else use Atomic Transmission in Villa Park,Ill.

 

[IZwack]

1100.00 for a transfer case or transmission !?? If its for the transfer case, then GOOD LORD! send me a quarter of that and ill send you a workin BW 4405 ready to be bolted up and plugged in!

 

[bchess]

Sorry I didn't run into you sooner, well looks like I got BURNED:fire: again. Typical consumer trusted the garage to play it fair, lost again I quess. The garages around here don't work for peanuts and there's no real way to check out all the prices and book hours. I got a recommendation from a local garage, that sends all his work to this business. So I went with a local Transmission garage thats been in business for over 30 years, they have over 30 bays and the cars and trucks are lined up, It was really quit an operation. Frank was the owner and he was right there to talk turkey with the regular guy. He had on a work shirt cover with that days grime and seemed to take a personal interest in everyone that walked through that door, I acually felt good until I read your last reply and now I just don't know.

When you get your Vehilce towed to a garage and they spend time diagnoising the problem ( took me 3 weeks and I coundn't figure it out) turns out it wasn't the Transmission it was the Transfer Case all along.

Well the truck does run and the o/d light is stable, the Transmission shifts 1 thru 5 and the 4 wheel drive works as it should. There still is a soft to medium clunk when coasting down hill a repair for another day i'm sure.

 

[IZwack]

Well the truck does run and the o/d light is stable, the Transmission shifts 1 thru 5 and the 4 wheel drive works as it should. There still is a soft to medium clunk when coasting down hill a repair for another day i'm sure.

Wait so they've fixed it already?

That 30 bay shop must be an amazing thing to see.. ive never seen that many bays.

I also didnt know that the t-case can case the "O/D OFF" light to blink ... i thought it was always the "4Lo 4Hi" thing.. but i dunno much, so this is something new to me!

 

[bchess]

yep

 

[bchess]

Well lets see, The last report on 05052005 was the cars was running ok, well to day 9 days later and maybe 200 miles, the drive trane went out of sync and started to grind like the original problem more than a month ago. ( ha ha ha ha its just unbelievable ) it happen at the very same location on top of a good size hill at about 50 mph.

I take it all back what I said about the shop doing a good job. 1200.00 later and I'm in the same place and I know what the shop is gonna say, ( bringer back so we can check er out ) 2 days later they'll say well the so and so is toast, burnt, fried all tore up, and needs to be rebuilt, never should have trusted them.

You just can't trust anyone involved in buying, selling or repairing cars period!