05 Exp 4.0 needs auto trans and timing chains

[RichnMo]

I recently aquired a 2005 Explorer fpr little to nothing with 180,000 miles. The auto trans has no forward gears after about 5 minutes of running. Also when I had it running even after warmed up the timing chain appears to be hitting the case. My question is concidering the transmission has to come out, can the timing chains be replaced with the engine still in the engine bay?

 

[DILLARD000]

...2005 Explorer ...180,000 miles ...auto trans has no forward gears ...timing chain appears to be hitting the case
...can the timing chains be replaced with the engine still in the engine bay?

May be possible, but not practical; to replace right rear TimingChain cassette, hardware has to removed\replaced on rear of engine.
No room between head\block & firewall to do that.
I'd be looking for a newer lower mileage 2006~2011 V6~4.0L~SOHC junkyard short block to rebuild;
keep+reuse all the auxiliary bolt on's from the old block; swap that in while you're also doing the transmission work.
It may be possible with the transmission out, to dismount the engine & move it forward enough to do this work,
but that would be comparable to just simply pulling the engine & being able to easily get around it & rebuild it.

 

[RichnMo]

Thanks for the info as I haven't even looked at it yet and being the trans was going to be out I thought maybe a person would have access to those components. Again thank you