New Forum Member with tranny issues

[ParadoxRacing]

Hello, I'm new to the forums. I picked up a 91 Eddie Bauer edition from a friend a year or so back. It had (what we thought) was a bad transmission. It had no forward gears, but reverse would kinda work. (It would move, but was slipping badly in reverse). My original plan was to throw a junkyard transmission in it and use it as a winter beater. Long story short, I pulled a tranny (A4LD)out of an AWD Aerostar that had been T-boned. My logic was that it was most likely not the transmission going out that sent this van to the junkyard, so the tranny should still work. Got the new tranny in, and what??! Exact same problem, except now reverse is slipping even more. I did not replace the torque converter, and all I did to the junkyard tranny is a fluid and filter replace. I have done a lot of searching, and the general consensus is bad forward clutches or bands, but what is the likelyhood of two transmissions having the EXACT same problem? I plan to rebuild the transmission that came out of the Explorer and replace the torque converter, but I wanted to get some input on whether anyone had an idea whether this could be something else entirely. (BTW, there are no unusual noises when you put it in gear and try to drive, it simply acts like it's in neutral.

 

[ParadoxRacing]

Anyone?

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! Never reuse an old torque converter. They wear out just like anything else. Old fluid with debris from the old transmission could get caught in the new transmission. The front cooler lines should be flushed with cooler cleaner prior to installing the new transmission. Did you check the transfer case to see if this was the original problem?

 

[79broncojosh]

X2 on the converter. I had the exact same problem with my 95. Put a used tranny in and same problem. well it turns out that the TC was the problem all along. So out comes the tranny again and due to money issues at the time was forced to put another used TC in and it works but i still have converter lockup issues.
Long story short ALWAYS change the converter.

 

[ParadoxRacing]

Yeah, that's kinda what I figured, just wanted some verification of sorts. I couldn't see how it could be the transfer case because it would turn the wheels on jack stands, and had some power in reverse, all with no noise. If the transfer had been stuck halfway between neutral and engaged, there would most likely be some grinding. At least that's my logic. Thank you for your replies.

 

[94fourdoor]

Go manual and you can skip all these crappy problems all together! Thats what I'm doing after three A4LD tranny replacements! Or have someone bad ass at rebuilding auto trannys rebuild yours and make it as bullet proof as possible. I've heard of someone making one heck of an A4LD, it just wasn't the guy who did any of mine! Good luck and WELCOME!!!

 

[ParadoxRacing]

I thought about going manual. I even got so far as getting the clutch pedal assembly and master cylinder, but I was having a hard time locating a suitable gearbox, and with everything else I would need to get, it seems that a rebuild would be more cost effective at this point, especially since I have two transmissions to gut for parts. Besides, the reason I decided to tackle this now is that my truck (Not the explorer) just threw a rod and seized the main bearings, our worst month for winter is March, and my DD is a Mazda RX8 (not too good in the snow). I need to get a winter vehicle on the road fairly quickly and the Explorer is in pretty good shape, so it makes a good candidate for my winter vehicle. The engine in my truck is most likely not easily rebuildable (You should've heard it's death wail when the bearings siezed at 60mph with a pushrod hammering around inside), and I want to convert it to diesel anyway, but sourcing the parts for that conversion will take time.