Transmission rear servo might have a broken or missing spring.

[matt.t.copeland]

Hellos, this is my first post and if a question that's already been asked(which i'm sure it has) I want to apologize in advance, but here goes....


Vehicle: '99 ford explorer sport, 2wheel drive,6 cylinder,automatic transmission,4.0,SOHC


Problem: after shifting into reverse heard a loud thump and then no more reverse, all other gears work fine, but when I shift into reverse it's like being in Neutral.


all the research I've done suggests it's either the reverse servo?....or the reverse band.I removed the drain pan and discovered small bits of metal, not cast though.I have since removed the transmission from the car to get a closer inspection. once I removed the four bolt that hold on the servo cover I noticed that there is no spring-action in the piston as it did not push the cover off when I removed the bolts, which leads me to believe that the pieces of metal I found in the pan were from the spring that is supposed to be there,though I cannot see it.


Question: How do I remove the servo?

 

[wood1]

Hey Matt, welcome to the site.

The A4LD was in Explorers from 91-94. In 95 it was a newer version, the 4R44. If you have the SOHC 4.0 it's a 5R55 I think... I'm more of a 1st generation Explorer guy.

Point being, post your questions in the transmission forum. You will get more responses there. There are lots of stickies there to read. I would bet if you did a search in there you would find your problem.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=109

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! I've renamed your thread, and moved it into the transmission section. The 5R55E doesn't have a large spring like the A4LD.

 

[matt.t.copeland]

Thanks

oh wow, haha....sorry about that. I actually got it out...just had to grab one of the metal fins and it came right out.

 

[matt.t.copeland]

I did find that the Servo was chipped a bit on the end.....but the pieces of metal I found in my pan didn't come from that.....they look like bearings....could the servo have made accidental contact with something with bearings causing me to only lose reverse?? I put a phillips screwdriver in the servo piston hole? to see if there was still spring in it and there was,not a lot of give, but spring nonetheless. whatya think?

 

[BrooklynBay]

Could you post a picture of the metal fragments? They might be fragments from a one way sprag.

 

[matt.t.copeland]

Tried to upload some photos and couldn't figure it out.....I'm pretty sure the cylindrical bearing type pieces of metal were from the rear one way sprag.....so my thinking is that since I already have the transmission out of the car I should check it....my question is how do I get to it.....I have removed the valve body but cannot get to it through there......do I need to remove the portion that the drive shaft connects to in order to get to it? Thanks in advance

 

[drdoom]

Go deep. If you have fragments you need to do a full tear-down, and rebuild from there.

 

[matt.t.copeland]

OK thanks,...How do I separate the bell housing from the main body of the transmission, I removed the bolts on the inside of the bell housing, they were Blue and 17mm I believe ....seems pretty stuck on there though...seems to be a seal or gasket of some sort between the bell housing and the main body, im sure it will need to be replaced on the rebuild phase, but I don't want to damage the transmission by prying it off.....did I miss something?



also I removed the rear section of the transmission too, and the two servo pistons on the side

 

[BrooklynBay]

Remove all of the bolts, then try to twist the bell housing as you pull on it.