Looking for 5r55e replacement advice/tips?

[ETHACK]

So I have a 2001 Explorer 4.0l 4x4 5r55e, and thanks to all the help here on EF I've swapped out the motor and the suspension components, and I'm not a mechanic by any means, she runs great, well I lost the transmission thankfully in the driveway. So now I'm going to replace the transmission, my question is are there any secrets or upcoming problems I should be aware of, special tools, or install tips? Good videos to watch? Do I have to drop the transfer with it then separate, or separate then drop, is there a gasket I'll need for the transfer/trans mount? Is there something else I should do while all this is out and being done? Is it best to cut out the exhaust or just drop it? Just doing a "simple" tranny swap with reman unit and TQ, and have no exp with tranny work. I appreciate any and all advice. TY!!

 

[rasouth]

My first question is, are you doing this in your garage? If so you will need to raise the car high enough to get the tranny out along with jack or whatever you are supporting tranny with. I would remove driveshaft, disconnect all wiring and linkages to tranny, loosen exhaust ( might have enough room to drop tranny without removing all exhaust), drop back end of tranny to get to upper bolts on engine, (need LONG extension on ratchet) and whatever you support the tranny with the tranny needs to be strapped or chained so it will not roll off on you.
I am sure others will respond with more advice and tips soon. Good luck.

 

[ETHACK]

My first question is, are you doing this in your garage? If so you will need to raise the car high enough to get the tranny out along with jack or whatever you are supporting tranny with. I would remove driveshaft, disconnect all wiring and linkages to tranny, loosen exhaust ( might have enough room to drop tranny without removing all exhaust), drop back end of tranny to get to upper bolts on engine, (need LONG extension on ratchet) and whatever you support the tranny with the tranny needs to be strapped or chained so it will not roll off on you.
I am sure others will respond with more advice and tips soon. Good luck.

Yes will be in my garage, the plan is to raise the vehicle up on 6-ton jack stands, remove front tires, I found out when replacing the motor that I was able to access the upper/mid bell housing bolts through the fender well with the tires removed but MUST use a slim design pivoting head 3/8 ratchet, was tight but better than 30" of extensions, do not have tranny jack hope to use low profile Daytona 3 ton floor jack and plywood to wheel it out with. Should I drop ex from the y or loosen/lower the manifolds?

 

[Josh P]

Life will suck without a proper jack for the transmission. I use longer bolts to hold the transmission while lining everything up. Install the torque converter in the transmission first. I can't answer the exhaust question cause on the aerostar, there is enough room to lift the transmission over the pipe.

 

[C420sailor]

Make sure the unit you are installing is well rebuilt. If you install a junkyard special, and it is a heap, you are going to absolutely hate yourself.

This job kinda sucks, not gonna lie...ESPECIALLY if the trans has never been out.

 

[ETHACK]

Make sure the unit you are installing is well rebuilt. If you install a junkyard special, and it is a heap, you are going to absolutely hate yourself.

This job kinda sucks, not gonna lie...ESPECIALLY if the trans has never been out.

Yea it's the original coming out 243K miles, and getting reman from moveras, the same company that supplies Autozone and Napa, so hope it's good.

 

[Mbrooks420]

Yea it's the original coming out 243K miles, and getting reman from moveras, the same company that supplies Autozone and Napa, so hope it's good.

Typically with transmissions if it’s cheaper than everywhere else there’s a reason. The 5r isn’t the easiest transmission to build.

 

[ETHACK]

So posted this in another thread but thought I'd post here just in case someone is looking later on....So trans is in, still got little stuff to finish but the big stuff is done, 2 things I wanted to pass on that really helped me was I put vaseline on the center torque converter and I also put some in the center of the flywheel/bolts, she slid right in, lined up TC and bam 10 minutes tops and lined up perfectly, another thing that really helped me was I took 2 M10x1.5x100mm bolts and cut the heads off, then I screwed in the newly made dowels into the 2 lower bell housing bolt holes just finger tight though, so when I lined up the transmission I slid her right up and on the dowels perfectly then doublechecked my TC nuts, then tightened up the 8 Bell housing bolts, etc. The dowels worked great.

 

[C420sailor]

Good thought on the makeshift dowels

 

[ETHACK]

Yea the dowels worked fantastically, I read that idea somewhere and remembered to do it, actually made a special trip to home D for the bolts. Now I am a little confused about the linkage, do I set it in P, R, N, or D? All the way forward on the transmission linkage is low 1 right? One thing is for sure everything is going back together easier than it came apart, thankfully. Everybody here has been great in helping, I really appreciate it.

 

[ETHACK]

So quick follow up to the transmission swap, again I am not a mechanic and this is my first trans replacement. So I got it in and all back together only to start it and ATF poured out the cooler lines. Well, I sort of rounded one head as was told it was a 16mm, which works but not well, a 5/8's works much better and tighter, also a stubby open-end wrench is key for this fitting, or a cut 5/8 flare wrench as room to tighten/loosen cooler lines is tight. Due to the slight rounding of the nut, I was worried about tightening it down so I ordered new cooler lines, waited 2 days got 1, still waiting on the other. Installed the new line, went in smooth as butter, re-connected the other one as it was good, started up and ATF poured out again. So after some serious research, I found out that there is a transmission line connector that inserts into the transmission housing and THEN the flare nut cooler line connects to that, that was not in my book, YT video's, here on EF, or on the transmission paperwork, my dumbass was screwing the lines directly into the transmission, again NOT a mechanic. So attempted to find the part, simple right?? Ford stealership is back-ordered with ETA of April this year with no update, past due, Autozone can not get, although on-line says in-stock, Oriellies can not get, advance can't either, Amazon does not have it either, and My old tranny left 1 hour before I got to Autozone to remove connectors so...... I went to several local shops and looked at the old transmissions they had laying around. Finally, NAPA was able to order them with an ETA of 7 days, so long story short, 5/8 open end stubby, or cut 5/8 flare wrench about 6" long, and remember to remove the Transmission cooler lines connectors from your core tranny, and don't send your core back until the job is complete. Even though it is for a GM, a Dorman 800-811 is supposed to work, I hope so!!! While the install and re-install of everything I had to remove out of the way went smoothly, this is simply operator error and dumbassery all the way. Also, a 2x8 and my Daytona 3 ton floor jack from Harbor Fre worked better than the trans jack adapter for little floor jack, absolute garbage seriously tall, it's like 14" from floor to plate, but the Daytona and wood on the front side of the pan, straps worked great, and you can disconnect the transfer case from underneath, easier to handle separately and regular ramps were tall enough once remove the neff bar. Hope this helps someone viewing these threads later looking for advice on the 5r55e.

 

[donalds]

Thanks for the update