My 2001 Ranger Edge 4x4 Supercab

[4pointslow]

I made good progress today. The transfer case and the transmission are both out.
Next weekend I will continue on in this project, tomorrow I rest!

Transfer case:

Transmission:

 

[4pointslow]

The carnage!
The one way clutch (sprag) in the center shaft is what broke.
I just so happened to have a good one in my collection of spare parts.

The good one!

 

[4pointslow]

So Sunday 11-01-2020 I finished assembling the transmission. I installed the center shaft with the good sprag (one way clutch), new clutches, bands, seals, and a reman valve body. The transmission was really clean inside and It looked like it had been rebuilt not that long ago. There was no metal or any other debris in the transmission. The old center shaft still contained all the broken pieces in it, nothing had escaped that assembly as far as I can tell. The sprag clutch in the center shaft is a weak design, but at least when it goes it stays self contained. (or at least it did in my case).

I did not clean the outside of the transmission, it looks horribly dirty but the inside is almost clean enough to eat off of. (if you don't mind the taste of Mercon V. LOL Now if it was the beginning of spring and I new I had more time before the weather got bad, I would have stripped the case down bare and cleaned it up spotlessly. I might have even painted it.

It just turned November, and even the last couple of days were cold here (like 38-40 degree's F). I had to use an electric heater to get the garage warm enough to work in. Also my race truck has been sitting outside getting rained on ever since I put the Ranger in the garage. This bothers me a good bit because I am trying to keep the race truck as rust free as I can, for as long as I can. When we go into winter time I like to have both supercharged trucks in the garage, they barely fit. I only have one car garage door so I use those Harbor Freight wheel dollies to move one truck over and then I can pull the other one in.

So at the end of the day the transmission was ready to be installed, but I had other plans for Monday.

 

[4pointslow]

Monday 11-02-2020,
I scheduled time off from work Monday through Wednesday to have more time to try to finish the Ranger or at least get a good amount of the work done. I have had this rattle at start up for about a year now? In January of this year I had the driver side valve cover off to replace the gasket as it was leaking oil profusely. Prior to that I had a small coolant hose blow out on the way to work one day and the engine over heated a bit. Well the valve cover gaskets started leaking pretty good after that, since they got baked and were old anyway. Everything looked good under the driver side valve cover including the timing chain guide. I had one 65 degree day in January to do the driver side valve cover gasket and the passenger side wasn't leaking as bad so I put it off hoping to get to it when it was warmer out again.
Now this year had been pretty busy since I was building a junkyard engine for the race truck and then the timing jumped on my old blue 98 four door and I bought the 2000 Explorer four door to replace that. The 2000 turned out to need just about everything except a body, engine and trans.
A week before I finished it the Ranger transmission lost 2nd,5th, and reverse. LOL. Long story short, I have been really busy this year.

Monday's to do list was pulling the passenger side valve cover to replace it and check the timing chain guide. I figured it was shattered and was surprised to find that it was not, once I had the cover off. I almost thought that I could just install the new valve cover gasket and be done with it, but I investigated a bit further. After all, the transmission is out so the lower timing chain guide bolt is accessible at the back of the engine now.

Here is what I found as I investigated further.

 

[4pointslow]

I took this picture to show how clean this engine is inside.
My assumption is that it is not the original engine. I could not find a VIN stamped into the back of the driver side rear of the block, like there is supposed to be. This was probably a remanufactured engine that someone installed. After all the truck has approximately 280,000 miles on it.

And this picture shows the lower bolt for the timing chain guide that is only accessible after removing the transmission.

 

[4pointslow]

Old guide vs new.
There are cheap non OEM guides out there that break in about a year according to internet information.
I order Ford OEM guides from eBay but when I got this one(on left in picture) it was in an open box. I cant help but be concerned that someone might put a non OEM part in a OEM box and try to pass it off for a good quality part. If anyone knows how to spot real OEM vs Fake let me know.

The other side of tensioners

Zoomed in because I was interested to see this wear mark on the one I pulled out of my engine.(circled in red)

 

[4pointslow]

So Monday I finished the timing chain guide installation.
To show my human side that makes mistakes, I will tell you that you should have seen my face the first time I installed the valve cover and then saw the roller followers (rocker arms) still on the table where I left them. I had to pull the valve cover off again to install those darn followers. LOL.
It would not have been so bad if I didn't have to remove all kinds of stuff to get to that valve cover, including the alternator.
I did get it off in record time though, got the followers installed and all back together by dinner time. Monday's task was done.

I wanted to show how tight it was to work in there, so I took these pictures of the timing tools installed on the engine.
You can replace these guides with out pulling the engine but the transmission still has to be out to get to that lower timing chain guide bolt.
I used a long 1/2 inch extension to attach the torque wrench to the tool all the way in the back there that lets you torque the cam gear bolt to specification. It was not easy to get the torque wrench at a 90 angle in that tool, but that is what you have to do to achieve the correct tightening torque.

This picture is of the tool that looks like a tensioner. It takes the place of the tensioner during the timing procedure because it has tighter spring tension that simulates the added push when there is oil pressure on a running engine.

 

[4pointslow]

Tuesday's to do list was to install the transmission.
It went faster than I thought it would. I'm getting old and worn out so getting on and off the creeper for four days straight gives me muscle aches everywhere. Not to mention the few times I banged my knee cap on the step bars, ouch!
I started it up and the engine has never started so quietly! No more timing chain death rattle!

Then it was time to add transmission fluid and see how the transmission felt.
I was a bit disappointed to find that reverse doesn't work, feels just like neutral. D,2,and 1 go into gear but I didn't drive it but only a couple feet since it wont back up.
My first thought was, on no the reverse drum one way clutch must be bad. I had tested it but maybe it turned and didn't turn the wrong directions?
Maybe I overlooked it because it turned one way and not the other way.

I pulled the supercharged race truck into the garage and left the Ranger in the driveway. I was thinking I will leave it there until spring next year.
Winter is coming and I don't want the supercharged race truck sitting in the driveway during the snow.
After cleaning up and locking up the garage it was about 4:00 pm so I had time to eat dinner, watch a little youtube and then went to sleep exhausted.
I usually go to bed around 6:00-7:00 pm and get up at 2:30-3:00 am anyway.

This morning (Wednesday 11-4-2020) I got up early started laundry, then went to public works in my town to drop off some containers of oil and an old car battery for correct disposal. Made a trip to Chick Filet for a couple of chicken burritos for breakfast, and finally got to reviewing some video I took while disassembling the transmission. I looked up the correct way the reverse drum should turn (clockwise) and compared it to the way mine turned in the video (also clockwise). This means I might not have to pull the transmission back out. Maybe if I am lucky I will just drop the pan and be able to fix it.
Now I just need to figure out why it wont go into reverse. I have to start by putting the vehicle up on jack stands and running it through all the forward gears to see if they all work and see if it has deceleration braking in the transmission and check for codes(no CEL though). Knowing all this information is important to narrow the possibilities down from the symptom. Looking back through the videos I took while assembling the transmission I was able to rule out incorrectly installed reverse band installation. I did however feel that the reverse servo piston might have been bottoming out without tightening up the reverse band. There are different length servo piston rods and they are marked with grooves.
If I am lucky and that's the cause, then I drop the pan and then four bolts to remove the reverse servo piston cover and piston assembly.

Here is a video of the reverse drum one way clutch (sprag clutch) test.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

well, if you had a body lift on it, it would be soooooo much easier to work on!
im going to say the tensioner you have is a ford one because it has a ford engineering number one it

 

[4pointslow]

Both had the same number stamped on them, do the non OEM ones not have a number stamped on them?
Are you putting your supercharger back together now? Or waiting for better weather?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Both had the same number stamped on them, do the non OEM ones not have a number stamped on them?
Are you putting your supercharger back together now? Or waiting for better weather?

im pretty sure if the aftermarket used the ford numbers, thats a law breaker. almost all ford parts have their own engineering number on them. most people think they are part numbers, but they arent. the basic number is the same however.
yup, shes all back together and destroying tires once again.

 

[4pointslow]

Congratulations on getting it back together again! That brightens up my day to know you are ripping the Explorer around and having fun!
Now you need to get some cool video footage from inside and out(with help from Dono?) to post on Youtube and share link here on explorerforum!

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Congratulations on getting it back together again! That brightens up my day to know you are ripping the Explorer around and having fun!
Now you need to get some cool video footage from inside and out(with help from Dono?) to post on Youtube and share link here on explorerforum!

that will have to wait till spring. the tires i use for winter are on it now. they bust loose at 1/4 to 1/2 throttle and wont hook unless i get off it lol

 

[donalds]

Old guide vs new.
There are cheap non OEM guides out there that break in about a year according to internet information.
I order Ford OEM guides from eBay but when I got this one(on left in picture) it was in an open box. I cant help but be concerned that someone might put a non OEM part in a OEM box and try to pass it off for a good quality part. If anyone knows how to spot real OEM vs Fake let me know.

View attachment 323804

The other side of tensioners

View attachment 323805

Zoomed in because I was interested to see this wear mark on the one I pulled out of my engine.(circled in red)

View attachment 323806

It's showing a little wear but I don't see it broken anywhere

 

[4pointslow]

So today I pulled the transmission pan down on my Ranger, and then removed the 4 bolts and the reverse servo cover. I looked up in the hole and saw nothing. The Band had moved to the side and the servo piston rod was not contacting it. I was able to move the band back in place with a screw driver. Looking in the hole in this picture you can see the tab on the reverse band that the rod hits against. This is what you should see. I put it all back together and I now have all 5 forward gears and even reverse now!

Here is a picture of the band I removed during the rebuild. You can see the tab much better in this picture.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

rare find. a reverse band that still has the tab on it

 

[CDW6212R]

That's interesting, it sounds lucky to not have it broken. I had the band break in my first car, the C4 has a band for 2nd gear, and I drove it for a few months with no 2nd.

 

[4pointslow]

The band better not break, it is brand new. LOL. Even the old one was not broken, transmission probably was rebuilt not that long ago.

 

[4pointslow]

Today I installed parking brake cables, rear brake shoes, spring kit, wheel cylinders, and new drums.
For reference my old parking brake cable measurements were...
Shorter cable housing length 43 inches and total length is 52 inches.
Longer cable housing length 72-73 inches and total length 84 inches.
I also changed the oil and rotated the tires.

Driving up the metal ramps I use to change the oil, I noticed my 4WD was not working.
It never seemed to work correctly since I got the truck. I did plug the transfer case back in after installing the transmission.
The truck has 2wd,4wd high, and 4wd low.
I pulled codes, cleared them and checked again.
I have two codes that returned so the problem is still there, I will look into it when possible.

 

[4pointslow]

I ordered and received a shift motor. Going to try to install it this weekend if I can find time, Mandatory overtime this Saturday! LOL
Car parts money for sure, LOL