Need Help: Transmission problem

[anavrin78]

Hi guys, I am having a problem w/ my 97 explorer sport w/4.0 and automatic transmission. Yesterday we had snow/ice, so I drove the car in 4x4 high. I noticed when I was driving it, I left off the throttle, and the car starting making a high whining sound, like there were gears grinding together. Today I put the car back in automatic mode, and drove it around, on the highway, when I left off the gas it is making the same noise, and I noticed that the tach is showing the RPM's falling to around 750/1k, almost like it is popping out of gear. When I press the throttle again, the RPM's go back up to where they were and the car accelerates. There is no clanking/jumping of it going back in to gear or anything.

Has anybody had similar problem or know what could be causing this?

 

[anavrin78]

After doing some internet searching, I think that the problem may be I hadn't engaged it back into automatic 4x4 correctly. I re-did it, and drove it around 50-55 and didn't get the noise to come back, but I haven't drove it on the highway yet which is where I was experiencing the problem. I'll post back tomorrow and update for anyone that is interested.

 

[anavrin78]

So I drove on the highway with no problems yesterday, I guess I didn't have it engaged back into automatic mode correctly.

 

[Scaboza]

What is the correct way to re-engage the auto 4x4? I have a similar problem now (first real snow, ice, and below zero temps).

Thanks