Ok after searching, O/D still refuses to work

[Brett F.]

Ok so I have a 96 XLT 4wd and the 4r55e transmission. Full at warm temp.

This morning when pulling into my driveway at the curb that runs through my subdivision the tranny dropped out of gear and reved up and then banged back into gear. Searched and found some things to try. While at advance auto I found some transmission treatment that would recondition seals and clear deposits and junk out. So I put that in and went for a drive. Here is what I noticed.

It seems to go into another gear or it's just the torque converter locking up.

Also on a down hill coast I could take it out of o/d and the coasting would stop and 3rd gear would kick in and take the rpm's up. While this way I could reengage o/d and go back to coasting and rpm's would drop.

Never saw it do this before the conditioner.

I am nervous about dropping the pan and changing out the shift solenoid. I have done lots of other things but this for some reason scares me. (transfer case shift motor rebuild, front bearing assembly replacement, and normal fixes and maintenance)

Anything I might be overlooking?

On a scale from 1-10 how difficult is this going to be to change out that solenoid?

How many qts of ATF will I need to replenish what is dropped?

Thanks!!

edit: Oh and the o/d light does not flash at all. either on or off...

 

[35Remmy]

Brett, when you take the transmission OUT of OD (OD/OFF), the RPM's are supposed to increase. I think you may have another issue. Does the tranny go into OD normally at highway speeds? Was this the first time it did this?

 

[Brett F.]

I always drive it in overdrive but found out through a scanner that the shift solenoid was stuck closed so o/d wasn't really engaging. I was trying to find out if this was something I could fix and according to info here i can do it if I get over the nervousness of attempting it.

Tranny's scare me. One sure fire way to make the daily driver undrivable.

What normally happens at highway speed is when you take it out of o/d the rpm's increase by about 500 and then it drops back to where it was. When you put back into o/d no rpm drop. 60 mph is at 2500 rpm's

I'll get on the hwy tomorrow to see how it does and report back.

 

[Brett F.]

OK so on the hwy i was running 70mph at 3000 rpms and kicked it out of o/d and no change at all.

guess the shift solenoid is bad for sure. That or the electrical connection.

30* here so it will have to work this way until it warms up a little and I can get under it and see what I can do.