1993 Ford Explorer ROUGH IDLE & GEAR SHIFTING

ABDNGNHM

MEMBER
1993 FORD EXPLORER

Transmission problem
1993 Ford Explorer Two Wheel Drive Automatic 180000 miles

I've been driving her since I was 16 & I'm not ready to see her go. I have had 0 problems with her all of the 17years I've had her. She started idling hard & stalling shifting from R to D when I would back out in the morning for months last year, but that's finally cleared up on it's own. Just this past Sunday I noticed while on the freeway she was revving really high just to get up to freeway speeds & jerking from gear to gear. Discovered her transmission fluids were low which has been corrected & I hoped would solve the problem, NO GO:(. It's already "salvaged" from accident damages, so repairing a transmission will cost far more than she's "worth". Any chance there's a diagnosis other than a busted transmission? I'm in denial, I know; but just lost my job & not looking forward to car payments.

1 Reply

OBXAUTOMEDIC

MECHANIC
3,711 POSTS

Hello,

Ok, so if I understand right the only problem is the Hard Shifting. If so then there are Shift Solenoids inside the tranny pan on the valve body. They are easy to replace and fairly inexpensive.

Now if you still have the rough idle also then I would suggest looking at the oil and coolant to make sure there isn't one in the other. If there is either oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil then you have a Blown Head Gasket and that will effect the tranny shifting. I had a 94 and had same problem with shifting I knew I had a blown head gasket but it was blown to the outside so coolant was escaping out the back passenger side head. Had hard and irregular shifting for about 6 months finally got chance to replace head gaskets and fixed tranny problem. Not sure how or why but it did.

One other possibility, there is a Vacuum Modulator Valve on the passenger side of the tranny and of course they put it right next to the Cat and there is a heat shield protecting it.

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