BobWeiss
Member
- Joined
- July 27, 2006
- Messages
- 46
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Atlanitc City, NJ
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1991
I started the process of rebuilding my trans this weekend and after finally getting the beast out of my Explorer and hanging it on an engine stand, (Thanks to Gracier and others for theirs wonderful threads here 
) I disassembled it in order to find out what went wrong and to replace all the thrust washers and bearings plus all steels and frictions, bands, torque converter and whatever else I come across that needed to be replaced.
First of all here is a little history as to why I am doing this. The transmission never had a 4th gear (OD) since I had the truck and thats been 2 years now. Otherwise it ran great and I usually never went above 60 mph on the highway due to the RPM's going up to high (2500+) and gas being sucked up like my boat
!!
The final straw was a few weeks ago when it started slipping in drive and reverse and I would have to give it alot more gas at standstill to get her moving in either direction. I knew something had gotten worse and it wasn't long till it wouldn't move at all. I called around the local shops for estimates on rebuilds and the cheapest I came across was $1100!
Well, I wasn't about to lay out that kind of cash to someone and not know exactly what they did to it and if it would last me another couple years or more without any problems again. I gave the truck to my son (18) and wanted to make sure it was going to be ok for him with college etc...
I used to be a mechanic but never touched an automatic before nor seen the inside of one. After reading through this site and Glacier's diary I got the confidence to do this on my own.
and to my surprise it really isn't that hard to do. So anyone thinking of doing it but not sure, believe me by reading the A4LD diary plus understanding how an automatic is supposed to work and getting the tech manual for this you will be just fine! 
I wanted to share some pictures of what I found inside the unit so far and maybe what caused the OD not to work. When I dropped the pan I found some small pieces of metal in the bottom but nothing crazy. The fluid was almost black and I have no idea if it was ever changed before. The truck has about 140,000 miles on it and used to be used to tow a small boat on weekends.
When I got down to the OD planet and ring gear I found this:
What you are looking at is the OD planet gears and carrier. It is supposed to be one piece NOT TWO !!! It sheared off and could have been this way for 2 years of driving or it could have happened the week before I parked it for good when it wouldn't shift into 1st or reverse normally. Maybe someone reading this could tell me what the effects would be when this happens??
I am guessing this is why there is no 4th gear !!
I will post more pictures as I get further into it but I wanted share my experiences so maybe it could help someone else out like this board did for me!
Thanks for reading,
Bob W.
) I disassembled it in order to find out what went wrong and to replace all the thrust washers and bearings plus all steels and frictions, bands, torque converter and whatever else I come across that needed to be replaced. First of all here is a little history as to why I am doing this. The transmission never had a 4th gear (OD) since I had the truck and thats been 2 years now. Otherwise it ran great and I usually never went above 60 mph on the highway due to the RPM's going up to high (2500+) and gas being sucked up like my boat
!!The final straw was a few weeks ago when it started slipping in drive and reverse and I would have to give it alot more gas at standstill to get her moving in either direction. I knew something had gotten worse and it wasn't long till it wouldn't move at all. I called around the local shops for estimates on rebuilds and the cheapest I came across was $1100!
Well, I wasn't about to lay out that kind of cash to someone and not know exactly what they did to it and if it would last me another couple years or more without any problems again. I gave the truck to my son (18) and wanted to make sure it was going to be ok for him with college etc...
I used to be a mechanic but never touched an automatic before nor seen the inside of one. After reading through this site and Glacier's diary I got the confidence to do this on my own.
and to my surprise it really isn't that hard to do. So anyone thinking of doing it but not sure, believe me by reading the A4LD diary plus understanding how an automatic is supposed to work and getting the tech manual for this you will be just fine! I wanted to share some pictures of what I found inside the unit so far and maybe what caused the OD not to work. When I dropped the pan I found some small pieces of metal in the bottom but nothing crazy. The fluid was almost black and I have no idea if it was ever changed before. The truck has about 140,000 miles on it and used to be used to tow a small boat on weekends.
When I got down to the OD planet and ring gear I found this:
What you are looking at is the OD planet gears and carrier. It is supposed to be one piece NOT TWO
!!! It sheared off and could have been this way for 2 years of driving or it could have happened the week before I parked it for good when it wouldn't shift into 1st or reverse normally. Maybe someone reading this could tell me what the effects would be when this happens??I am guessing this is why there is no 4th gear
!!I will post more pictures as I get further into it but I wanted share my experiences so maybe it could help someone else out like this board did for me!
Thanks for reading,
Bob W.
