The transmission used in the Ford Explorer and the Ford Ranger are similar. Both are quite prone to failure. The culprit is mostly the gaskets on the solenoid housing. These gaskets are made of paper and after a certain period of time, or extreme conditions of use, they will weaken, and ultimately fail.
Symptoms will be late shifting, flaring, OD light flashing and other weird behavior of the transmission. If you continue to drive your vehicle under these conditions, you may cause irreparable damage to your transmission, so at the first sign of failure, start by changing your fluid and if it persists, then proceed as follows.
1- Jack the vehicle, and support it on jack stands.
2- Go to the front passenger side of the car, disconnect the transmission cooler lines. Have a catch pan ready and some hoses if possible to direct the flow of transmission fluid. Start the engine and let it run for about a minute, or until you notice air bubbles coming out of the drainage hose. Stop the engine.
3- Remove the exhaust shield plate on the catalytic converter on the driver's side, by leveraging it out with a flat screwdriver.
4- Next, unbolt the drive shaft where it connects to the transfer case. There will be four bolts, Torx T30. Use a flat head screwdriver to push the universal joint toward the rear of the vehicle, and this should free the shaft.
5- Now, using a 13mm ratcheting socket, remove the transmission pan. You should not have as heavy a bath of tranny fluid if you did the second step above right. Remove the bolts in a criss-cross pattern. Take your time.
6- Using a 10mm Socket, remove the tranny fluid filter. The original is a longer bolt, and will have a spacer. The updated part that comes with the new filter should have a shorter 8mm bolt. Be prepared for another tranny fluid bath.
7- From now on, remember, "cleanliness is next to G.....!". I cannot stress this enough, but just make sure everything from this point on stays as clean as you can manage. Get the lid of a cardboard box. Using a pen or felt tipped pen, sketch the valve body that is now exposed.
8- Punch holes on the lid corresponding to the darker bolts. There will be two brass (shiny gold colored) bolts that you should not touch. The reason is because the bolts are of different lengths. You want to make sure they go back exactly where they came from so that your separator plate and gaskets hold true.
9- Unplug the electrical connectors on the solenoids. They PULL DOWN, and not outwards as it may at first seem.
10- Remove the transmission dip stick. It may interfere with removal of one of the bolts.
11- Drop the solenoid valve body. Another minor tranny fluid shower may result.
12- Remove the top gasket, P/N 2L5Z 7C155 AA. If you go slowly, you may get lucky and have it come out in one piece. Mine had a major tear and was the cause for my transmission problems. The tear can be seen at the top right, on the outer rim of the ring.
The lower gasket had mounds of metal shavings. It was a wonder the vehicle even attempted to move at times!
13- Using the Torx T30 once more, remove the three screws arranged in a triangular pattern on the solenoid body.
14- Carefully remove the separator plate. Lay it to the side. You may use a lint - free material to clean it. I used a blade to carefully scrape off recalcitrant pieces of gasket material.
15- Remove the lower gasket, P/N 2LZ5 7D100 BA. Be careful not to drop pieces of the old gasket in the channels. Remember there are check valves and some balls used in the valve body. These are now free, so be careful not the drop them. I made sure my valve body assembly was on a clean white paper surface, and even thought the transmission fluid in the grooves looked really bad, I didn't risk trying to clean them out. I just used the razor and cleanued up stuck pieces of gasket material.
16- Using fresh Automatic transmission fluid, (Please, Use ONLY Mercon V in this transmission), blot the mating sureface and the gasket. Take your time and make sure the gasket is seated well.
17- Blot and apply the separator plate, making sure its seating is true. Use the three screw to secure the plate.
18- Apply the upper gasket, P/N 2L5Z 7C155 AA making sure it is well seated. As usual, blot mating surfaces with fresh Mercon V automatic transmission fluid.
19- Very carefully put the Valve body assembly in place, then using your map from above, start installing the bolts. I found it easier to start with those on the edges as they were faster to locate and avoided me mixing up. Aluminum is very soft, so go hand tight first before using and tools to tighten the bolts further. They don't need to be too tight, so go easyyyy.
20- Plug the connectors to the solenoids.
21- Install the new filter, - Ford Motors P/N XL2Z-7A098-BA (Fram p/n FT 1087B), using the new shorter bolt.
22- Clean out the pan, dry and reinstall, bolting in a criss-cross pattern. Cork gaskets may be replaced, but rubber gaskets are mosty reusable.
23- Reconnect the transmission lines at the front of the vehicle.
24- Using a funnel, refill with 6 quarts of Mercon V automatic transmission fluid.
25- Start the engine, shift through all gears and let the car run for a minute while you go through the gears. Check fluid level once more, and correct as necessary. Go for a short test drive, check for leaks.
26- Hopefully, this corrects your transmission problems!
Please feel free to add comments or tips. Thanks for reading and sharing with your friends who have Ford Rangers or Ford Explorers.
