transmission woes

[dufus redbone]

I have a 92 explorer,4.0,4x4,auto.When you first crank up and go the trans shifts fine and normal thru all gears.After about 5 or 10 minutes when you come to a stop it does not want to disengage(like the stall converter is not stalling)It will go dead if you come to a stop.when you crank back up and put it in drive you better be on the gas or it will stall again.Does anybody have an idea what my problem is? would a rebuild fix it or just a torque converter?

 

[vrytired]

I have a 92 explorer,4.0,4x4,auto.When you first crank up and go the trans shifts fine and normal thru all gears.After about 5 or 10 minutes when you come to a stop it does not want to disengage(like the stall converter is not stalling)It will go dead if you come to a stop.when you crank back up and put it in drive you better be on the gas or it will stall again.Does anybody have an idea what my problem is? would a rebuild fix it or just a torque converter?

perhaps the TCC is getting stuck, i'm sure theres a way to disconect it. try unplugging it and see what happens. or maybe you can just ignore the problem by treating it like a manual and making use of neutral.

 

[dufus redbone]

bump

 

[MrShorty]

Definitely sounds like the torque converter clutch (TCC) is sticking on. In your PM, you mentioned the EEC relay. EEC relay is in the power distribution box under the hood, and feeds power to the EEC computer, and various sensors/solenoids in the engine management system (see a wiring diagram). Among those solenoids that get power from the EEC relay are the two transmission solenoids. While I have heard of cases where an electrical fault reportedly caused the symptoms you're describing, normally I would blame these symptoms on a hydraulic problem. Normally, once the transmission downshifts into 2nd or 1st gear, the TCC should unlock, regardless of what the electronics are doing.

I have seen a TSB that mentions this problem, but I don't know that it was real well written. It mentions crud build up in the valve body (and a spring in the valve body that isn't present in all cases) that prevents the TCC lockup clutch from disengaging.

When I had this problem in another vehicle, quick solution was to cut the wire to the TCC solenoid. If the computer couldn't tell the TCC to engage, it couldn't get stuck. I eventually wired in a switch so I could manually tell the TCC to engage on the freeway when I knew I wouldn't have to stop for a while, then disengage the TCC a few miles before I had to stop.

A proper fix for this is going to involve dropping the valve body and cleaning it out real good, make sure the valves all move freely. TN_Explorer posted a "valve body rebuild journal" not too long ago. You might have a look at that.

 

[dufus redbone]

Yes I have unplugged the wires from the trans to the computer and it runs and shifts fine,I just don't have overdrive,I have put 200 miles on it so far like this and it shifts fine.

 

[dufus redbone]

Well I dropped the valve body and was going to make sure nothing was wrong with the valve behind the torque converter solenoid.It was kind of hard to get out,but I got it.When I got it out it had a couple of deep scrape marks on it.I bought another valve body from a junk yard,took that valve out(it looked good) and put it back in my valve body and reassembled the trans.It has been a couple of days and everything seems to work fine and normal like it should.

 

[Glacier991]

Thanks for the update !! Those are always helpful!