please help no first gear after drive shaft failure

[jeephater#1]

hello all and thank you in advance now for my problem, let my girls dad do the welding for me on my spring pearches on the rear end after a soa mod.
well bless his heart he could'nt see and didnt want to tell me needless to say 30mph driveshaft falls out do to the hogs head moveing straight up!!!! now i have no first gear and have no clue how to fix it after about 15mph can switch to drive and go all day as long as i dont hammer it below 60 or else it just revs way up and after i let off the gas finally go's back in gear. also have major vibration in drive train. replaced broken driveshaft lucky thats all there was and put in a new u joint in slip yoke at front of rear drive shaft. my truck is a 98 sport 4.0 sohc with a 5r55e by the way already did the valve body gasket thanks to a awsome write up on here! this site is the best and i cant wait to see what you guys have to say about my truck as i am now lost thank you all very much!

 

[TarHeel085]

need a lil more info here, is it an auto or 5 speed?

 

[jeephater#1]

sorry its a auto

 

[TarHeel085]

EDIT: im guessin your 4wd, but that would lead me to beleive that your transfer case would be messed up, not your tranny? it sounds like it could almost be a torque converter issue since you can manualy put it in first, either that or there is a shift solenoid that is bad. check your fluid level as well. when glacier991 sees this im sure he will tell you exactly whats wrong. also, how is your front lifted if you have an SOA?

 

[jeephater#1]

I sweated another tread on here about a body lift up front but going down to none in the back basics 3'' up front bout 2.5 in middle and so on works great no lengthing anything just dropped radiator nothing else works great and now i have 33 12.50s on mine by the way yes 4wd why would you think the transfer case bc i swear i'm worried it might be gone too! i put it in drive feel a small thud like always but no go but u can tell she trys to pull but cant and no put it in drive no go 1st no go 2nd fine rev fine changes fine just no 1st gear thanks again!

 

[jeephater#1]

and yeah glacier991 may not know me but i know him he is extremely smart in this forum i've read almost all his treads and i think it was his valve body rebuid ? i followed at least i think cant remember hopefully he will know and already checked fluid heck almost changed all of it after that valve body rebuid drank more than got in the drip pan.

 

[Glacier991]

Thank you TarHeel and JeepHater for your kind words. Let me see if I might help here.

First off the fact you had an operating transmission in all gears prior to your incident with the dropped driveshaft makes me want to focus on that.

No First gear can sometimes be traceable to a damaged or misadjusted Digital transmission Range sensor. Depending on what occurred during the dropped driveshaft episode it is possible that could have been damaged.

I'd start there. While you are at it check the wiring harness to the transmission and the case connector..... because next in line is a malfunction of solenoids and/or EPC (I tend to doubt EPC though).

A mistorqued Valve body or a damaged gasket could cause this, but the timing of the onset does not necessarily suggest that.

My money is on either a damaged or misadjusted DTR or a harness that has sustained damage as the most probable culprits. Let us know what you find.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Maybe your VSS got damaged when your driveshaft fell out?

 

[jeephater#1]

thank u all very much just one problem, i have never heard the dtr? where could i find it on the transfer case or tranny and as far as the solenoids "looked" fine but what do i know it was the first time i ever saw one! the valve body got a good scrubbing as well when i redid the gasket but i did not use a torque wrench just made them as tight as i felt would keep them there! anyway i'm very happy to hear you guys dont think my tranny is gone i can change it out but do not! want to thanks

 

[Glacier991]

I'd suggest you carefully re-read the 5R55E Valve Body Rebuild Diary, and consider retorquing the VB. The proper torque is critical, as noted in the diary.

The DTR is the plastic unit on the transnmission where the shifter lever enters the case (with wires attached).

 

[jeephater#1]

okay i'll do that i guess i might have overlooked that , happened before oh well gonna go now and sweat that wiring god would that be nice. would that explain why she just really wants to pull and i can feel it go into gear? also while i am doing the valve body again i may as well put a drain plug in god i hate the mess

 

[jeephater#1]

well i just checked and as to my dismay everything is great and tight muddy , but ok so now what? i guess i need to go ahead and redo the vb i'll let you guys know how it go's any other thoughts or suggestions would also be greatly app. thanks to all


btw glacier you said mis adjusted dtr how could i tell if i need to adjust it and how would i do it

 

[Glacier991]

Ya know maybe a more detailed history would help here. From your description it sounds like you did some Valve body work, then later had this driveshaft problem..... start back at square one and give me a timeline of what work you did, how the vehicle performed after that work, from the beginning through the current problem... I think I am missing some essential piece somewhere. I'm happy to invest the time to help, but rather do it once with the full picture than giving you advice based on my "assumptions".

 

[jeephater#1]

ok about 1 month ago everything was fine theni decided to raise my rear with the soa mod. well u know what happened next the driveshaft fell, or ripped out more so. well i was able to get it on a flat bed but only in reverse useing 4wd but it pulsed pretty bad figured this was normal with no rear driveshaft. well i finally got another driveshaft and put it on. as soon as i tryed to drive it i realized what happen no 1st gear, plus real bad vibration well swithed the driveshaft frontu joint and now the rear is going oh well i can deal with that. but later after doing alot of searching in here i saw what i thought could be my problem so i then redid my vb just didnt use a torque wrench also i refiilled it with merc. 3 not 5 the guy at advance auto told me that was what it required thats all ive done oh also the 4wd works but it really pusates and it seems like the front wheels will not spin if to much pressure on them i'm sorry that i didnt give u all this before i've only been here about two days now but been reading this website for like 4 months just never knew it was free to sign up now i cant wait to become elite! thank u glacier for your time.

 

[jeephater#1]

ok now ive redone the valve body gasket thanks alot b/c the bolts were not even near the specified torque that they should have been but ... its still not any better . the fluid that was in there was pretty bad even though it was only about two months old i'm stumped are there any other things i can do, is it possiable that the band broke or slid off or somthing i would rather just switch out trannys with a junk yard and hope for the best but if you guys think there may be another way i'm game thanks everybody happy trails!

 

[jeephater#1]

please help here guys i'm really worried about my tranny and really dont want to replace the tranny any help by anyone would be greatly app. thank you

 

[BrooklynBay]

If you have the 5R55E 5 speed transmission, the required fluid is Mercon V, not III. There is a fluid made my Lubegard that is used to convert Mercon III to Marcon V. The wrong fluid can cause slippage, as well as low EPC pressure. Did you try to use a pressure gauge to check your pressures, and compare them to a chart in those gear ranges?

 

[jeephater#1]

no sorry i dont yet have access to a gauge but will soon i was afraid of the fluid thing i'm gonna trust my mind the next time i listen to a parts counter guy some know better but not the kids oh well let me change this fluid for the third time i'm just glad i put that drain plug in!

 

[BrooklynBay]

You don't have to remove your fluid. You could just put that additive in. It will convert it to Mercon V.

 

[Glacier991]

I still feel a little vague about your history.

Is this it?

A) It was running fine.

B) You raised it and it ws running fine

C) Your drive shaft was ripped out of it

D) Following that incident all hell broke loose and you got into your crrent predicament?