Transmission Pan Removal - HOW?!?!

[golfboy]

99 Mountaineer V6
Okay, who's the rocket scientist that put the catalytic converter under the transmission pan without enough clearance to get the pan off?!?!

Doing the solonoid replacement and I've been trying to 2 hours to get this thing out and can't find a way to do it. The exhaust pipes are welded to each other, and it appears the catalytic converter is welded in as well.

Took off the transmission cross member and tried to jack up the rear of the transmission but that just lifted everything including the converter.

Anyone ever had this happen?

 

[RickOTR]

You will need to loosen the two bolts from the Drivers side exhaust manifold, and the two bolts at the end of the Drivers side Cat. That should give you enough clearance to get the pan off. Or, you could just take the Cat off altogether.

 

[Robman]

with my '98 4dr XLT 4.0L SOHC, that had true duals back to the muffler(stock) and yes the exhaust(cat) was right under the tranny pan, I just removed the front driveshaft and was able to slide the pan out without taking the exhaust apart. Can't see why that wouldn't work for you.

 

[lobo411]

99 Mountaineer V6
Okay, who's the rocket scientist that put the catalytic converter under the transmission pan without enough clearance to get the pan off?!?!

I have a lot of friends who are engineers. And I gotta admit...my Dad was absolutely right when he said that engineers are the LAST people you'd want to do any kind of functional design. They're the geeks who know how to solve for X but not which way to turn a wrench.

 

[colintrax]

^ that's not entirely true... I'm an engineering major and work on my own trucks

I don't see why your cat is UNDER the pan??? It's next to it but I haven't had a problem dropping the pan

 

[Robman]

Well I'm just guessing 'cause he didn't mention... but I'd say it's a 4.0L SOHC engine, the 4.0L OHV does not have true duals back to the muffler, and the majority of the exhaust piping in the area runs along the right of the of the trannsmission/pan, so it's not a problem on the OHV .. but the SOHC I had to drop the front driveshaft, the bolt heads are torques(torks) sp.. head, can't remember what size.

 

[nitrodude]

My 97 has a cat directly under the trans pan as well.
Has bolts towards the front connecting to the driver side headers and bolts right after the cat, however there's no way to get to the top bolt on the exit side of the cat.

 

[Robman]

Carefully torch the tough exhaust bolts? .. Are there any other exhaust configurations other than the difference between sohc and ohv ? I'm curious now because those are the only 2 I know of.

 

[nitrodude]

It's not that they're stuck-the top bolt on the exit side of the cat is impossible to get a wrench on. At least any wrench you can get torque on to remove the bolt.

Bottom bolt you can get to, front/entrance side of the cat you can get to with an extension.

And if his is like mine-a 2wd there's no front shaft to remove to get the pan out.

 

[Robman]

ah true
I haven't had a 2wd explorer... I imagine they would be a weapon in the rain and snow, lol hucking sideways in a heartbeat.

 

[colintrax]

^nah, 2wd hooks up really well. You'd be shocked
And the 4.0 ohv isn't exactly a tire smoker

 

[Vic_Ferrari2002]

And the 4.0 ohv isn't exactly a tire smoker

Understatement of the month! Signature worthy!!

 

[golfboy]

with my '98 4dr XLT 4.0L SOHC, that had true duals back to the muffler(stock) and yes the exhaust(cat) was right under the tranny pan, I just removed the front driveshaft and was able to slide the pan out without taking the exhaust apart. Can't see why that wouldn't work for you.

This worked for me... pan was able to slide out (not real easily). Not looking forward to trying get it back in with a new gasket.

Everything is apart, now to reassemble with the new parts!
Hope this all fixes my issues (O/D light flashing).

Thanks for all the help guys. Much appreciated.

 

[drdoom]

Just mark and disconnect the front drive shaft at the front end, and wire it up out of the way.

 

[Robman]

a 2 wheel 4.0L SOHC sport model would be a weapon in adverse weather Not to mention how quickly sport models can whip sideways on things like washboarded gravel.

- Glad to to hear you got your trans pan off, hope the solenoid was all it needed. If your going to be adding new fluid, may I suggest full synthetic, It really helped the auto tranny on my '97.

 

[golfboy]

Well, things went back together very easily... that's the good news.
The bad news is after refilling the transmission (took 8 qts), I have no neutral or reverse. Park works, but every other setting seems to be forward, and the shifter doesn't go all the way to 1st.

NOW what did I do wrong?

 

[drdoom]

Did you have the valve body out? Eight quarts seems like a lot for just a pan drop.

 

[golfboy]

Did you have the valve body out? Eight quarts seems like a lot for just a pan drop.

Yes... swapped it to fix the O/D blinking light / hard shifting problem.

 

[drdoom]

Ok, that sounds right. Did you gett the manual valve engaged properly when replacing the valve body?

 

[golfboy]

Ok, that sounds right. Did you gett the manual valve engaged properly when replacing the valve body?

I believe so, I took pictures of everything before I took it off, and put everything back together the same. Or maybe I should have said I thought so...

I've never done any tranny work, so I'm not sure. Where is the manual valve and how should it be engaged?