4R44E, No forward gears.

[fletcher969]

Hi all,

Huge problem as my primary vehicle isn't moving. I'm pretty handy with the tools, and I'm a quick study, so any advice will be helpful. I'm hoping there might be something in what I describe that will help somebody identify the primary (possible) causes of what's described below. Here are the basics:

1996 XLT
191,000 miles
2.3L 2WD
4R44E Tranny
...2-3 flare for the last 3-4 months
...harsh in reverse (slow, jerky engagement, some shudders, undulating RPMs, runs fine "at speed")
...all other gears operate(d) as expected, including OD

About 2 weeks ago I started to notice some differences in my tranny.
...Very very sporadically, 1st wouldn't engage immediately from an idle stop
...noticed a small drip-leak from the tail housing near/at the driveshaft
...2-3 flare seemed to be "slippery" compared to before (seemed to want to flare more easily)

Today I was driving down the road, and before it was at operating temperature, I noticed it wanted to flare a little earlier than usual, and seemed to want to flare again (slip?) after it had shifted, but aside from that, it handled a fairly aggressive acceleration as I got up to speed. About 5 minutes later, without any additional symptoms, and without notice, it instantaneously lost all forward gears shortly after I shifted into 3rd or possibly 4th gear. So far as I can tell, no amount of time or RPMs will cause any forward gear to engage, nor does manually selection of gears. Also, there was no occurence of limp mode or the OD light flashing. No physical signs of damage underneath, fluid level is fine (slightly over-filled actually), color is clear and red. Reverse operates exactly as it did previously.

Again, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as this is going to quickly cramp my days.

Thanks.

Dave

Day 2 Update: I started my truck this morning, and immediately put it into drive. Initially it started inching forward, but stopped after about 6", and didn't move thereafter in D, 2, or 1. I turned off the OD as was suggested on a different forum, but it affected no change. The tranny seems to be holding the truck in place (i.e. it's on a slight slope, and it won't coast backwards), but it won't move it forward. Hope this proves somewhat helpful.

 

[Baseranger]

The forward clutch is most likely toast. The OD lamp flash will only happen if the trans has an electrical fault, however you have a mechanical failure. It is likely you still have 4th and OD but that doesn't help you any. Unfortunately your transmission will have to be rebuilt. The shift flare and harsh gear engagement is what did it in.

 

[fletcher969]

The forward clutch is most likely toast. The OD lamp flash will only happen if the trans has an electrical fault, however you have a mechanical failure. It is likely you still have 4th and OD but that doesn't help you any. Unfortunately your transmission will have to be rebuilt. The shift flare and harsh gear engagement is what did it in.

Thanks for responding.

Just to clarify, there was very little harsh gear engagement from either the flare or reverse. Reverse would "thump" into gear on occasion if it first hesitated, but mostly it would "shudder" some once it was in gear, and act "rough" at idle speeds, but otherwise acted perfectly normal once the throttle was applied. With respect to the flare, if I would have allowed myself to remain on the throttle, it would have "slammed" into 3rd gear, but in reality, that rarely happened, and hasn't for several months. I mitigated the flare and avoided any harsh engagement by letting up on the throttle as soon as the flare began, after which it would glide into gear (i.e. a perfectly normal gear shift aside from the initial increase in RPMs), but most of the time I simply anticipated the flare, let off the throttle momentarily, and let it "glide" into 3rd gear (very similarly to a manual tranny shift). The harsh engagement is simply what would happen if I didn't mitigate the situation.

Not sure if that changes your opinion of what might have broken, but I thought it worth mentioning.

A little something extra... I started my truck this morning, and immediately put it into drive. Surprisingly, it inched slowly forward for about 6", then quit moving. It's on a slope, and won't coast backwards (i.e. the tranny seems to be holding the truck in place), but it won't move forward. Symptomatic of a fried forward clutch exclusively, or could this point to something else also?

 

[fletcher969]

Alright...for the sake of completeness, I'm going to provide a quick historical rundown of my truck just in case there is some perspective lurking therein. Skip this if you've already read enough.

1 year ago: Cooler/radiator breach 1 year ago. Bypassed the stock cooler with an external, and flushed the tranny. No additional problems specific to that episode.

5 months ago: Timing belt broke. Installed new belt, but had a slight (split-second) off-idle hesitation thereafter, and since. Belt was properly installed, and all "marks" were properly aligned.

4 months ago: Over the course of a week or so, my tranny started hard shifting into 2nd and 3rd, and reverse, and it slipped between 1-2, and 2-3, eventually worsening until it continually kicked out of 3rd, and would sometimes go into limp mode. There was a whining noise also. OBD pulled a P0761 (Solenoid C stuck off) and P1701 (Reverse engagement error). Dropped the pan, discovered my EPC was loose (rotated +-10 degrees, tightened), and checked my wiring harness and cleaned my C-solenoid. Cleared the codes, and they never returned. Flushed it twice, and it ran fine except for a 2-3 flare, and a delayed but otherwise soft shift into reverse.

1 month ago: Started noticing that reverse was taking slightly longer to engage (4-5 seconds versus 1-2 seconds), was a bit more hard, and on a rare occasion shuddered for a few seconds, but otherwise ran fine once my speed was up. Continued without change until my tranny failed.

2 weeks ago: Engine started running rough (wanted to die after putting it in gear, stumbled, and loped), and my hesitation went from slight to a stumble. Replaced the MAF and cleaned the IAC, and the engine ran perfectly until immediately before I replaced the fuel filter the following day, whereupon the hestiation returned, and I had sporadic and slight stumling and loping until WOT was reached, though there were a few occasions where it stumbled after WOT was reached. That continued as I didn't have time to address the issue due to work.

1 week ago: Replaced the thermostat to get rid of an ongoing P0125 code. It was also around this time (within a day or two that I noticed my tranny was beginning to act up slightly worse ("seemed" to flare a little earlier), and seemed "softer" but nothing alarming.

1 day ago: Tranny lost all forward gears instantaneously, and without any immediately preceding indications whatsoever while operating at around 40 MPH.

 

[Baseranger]

In your post you mention it was slipping at some point. That means nothing good. Basically the clutches that are applied by fluid are not applied firmly which allows the clutches to spin without transferring torque to the output shaft. A very little bit of slipping will toast transmission clutches because they are not very thick and they hate heat. What you are most likely dealing with is a bad valve body separator plate and gasket that has gone on long enough to damage your transmission. If you do a search you should find the info on the separator plate/valve body repair. That is a cheaper option to try before getting a rebuilt trans. If you do the valve body you will need an inch pound torque wrench, a template for the bolts, and patience to do the job. I don't know that a valve body will change anything for sure without pressure testing the trans, but it is a place to start. The 4r44e has some serious valve body problems that unfortunately cause a lot of trans problems.

 

[fletcher969]

In your post you mention it was slipping at some point. That means nothing good. Basically the clutches that are applied by fluid are not applied firmly which allows the clutches to spin without transferring torque to the output shaft. A very little bit of slipping will toast transmission clutches because they are not very thick and they hate heat. What you are most likely dealing with is a bad valve body separator plate and gasket that has gone on long enough to damage your transmission. If you do a search you should find the info on the separator plate/valve body repair. That is a cheaper option to try before getting a rebuilt trans. If you do the valve body you will need an inch pound torque wrench, a template for the bolts, and patience to do the job. I don't know that a valve body will change anything for sure without pressure testing the trans, but it is a place to start. The 4r44e has some serious valve body problems that unfortunately cause a lot of trans problems.

I do mention it slipping, but that very well could be my "layman" assessment of something else. I do recall the rpms would rise while acceleration flattened, but for all I know, it wasn't a slip, but something else completely. I dropped the pan after the aforementioned "slipping," and there was NO evidence of clutch material as I've heard it described.

Also, I mentioned "layman" and with that in mind, from what I've read, reverse and 1st gears use the same clutch(es), but use a different sun gear. Assuming I read that correctly (and PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong...reading about transmissions can get confusing), if 1st doesn't work because of the clutch, shouldn't the same be true of reverse?

I can purchase a reman valve body for less than $200. If enough evidence points in that direction at some point, I may go that route instead of trying to refurb one myself (unless I can do it in approximately the same time frame and for less money by a large margin).

But to your point...I have been reading up some on the valve body rebuild....secretly hoping that's as serious as this gets, because worst case, I can handle the repair myself, or I can afford the part(s) to fix it (thanks for mentioning it just the same). The idea of a clutch or band being the problem is what I really worry about as either would leave me with few options, and all of them leave me in a worse spot than I was before.

 

[Baseranger]

What you explain is slipping. Engine toms increase without any increase in speed. Your clutch application theory of the same clutch operates forward and reverse is incorrect. Also, just because a clutch is toasted does not mean the fluid will look bad. The fluid is a poor indicator of the transmissions health. In all foreword gears (not reverse) the forward clutch is applied. In reverse and 3rd/4th the direct clutch is applied. That is why in my original post I said you likely have 3rd/4th but not 1st/2nd. The trans has 5 clutches 3 bands and 4 solenoids. The overdrive band is applied in 4th with the OD button on. Intermediate band 2nd and manual 2nd, lo/reverse band manual 1st/reverse, forward clutch all forward gears, direct clutch reverse/3rd-4th, coast clutch reverse/1st 2nd 3rd and manual 1st-2nd, the one way roller clutches would take a while to show,and they wouldn't be your issue anyway. The solenoids will set a code in the PCM thus causing the od light to flash if they have any issues. Your problem is hydraulic/mechanical thus no stored code in the PCM related to the transmission.

 

[fletcher969]

What you explain is slipping. Engine toms increase without any increase in speed. Your clutch application theory of the same clutch operates forward and reverse is incorrect. Also, just because a clutch is toasted does not mean the fluid will look bad. The fluid is a poor indicator of the transmissions health. In all foreword gears (not reverse) the forward clutch is applied. In reverse and 3rd/4th the direct clutch is applied. That is why in my original post I said you likely have 3rd/4th but not 1st/2nd. The trans has 5 clutches 3 bands and 4 solenoids. The overdrive band is applied in 4th with the OD button on. Intermediate band 2nd and manual 2nd, lo/reverse band manual 1st/reverse, forward clutch all forward gears, direct clutch reverse/3rd-4th, coast clutch reverse/1st 2nd 3rd and manual 1st-2nd, the one way roller clutches would take a while to show,and they wouldn't be your issue anyway. The solenoids will set a code in the PCM thus causing the od light to flash if they have any issues. Your problem is hydraulic/mechanical thus no stored code in the PCM related to the transmission.

Ok...that confirms I'm about as confused as I thought I was, even when I thought I was starting to make just a tiny bit of sense out of it! I wasn't theorizing about the 1st/reverse clutch...it's simply what my layman perspective was reading from the texts I'd reviewed. I'd also read in several forum threads that one can often detect a severely worn or damaged clutch because it deposits materials in the pan, so I made that assumption as well. I have correctly learned about the 3 bands, and I'm getting relatively familiar with the solenoids, but I thought there were only 3 clutch assemblies. I'll do some more reading so this can make a bit more sense. Thanks for the explanation. I'll keep reading it until I can visualize what you said above.

As I said....very confusing stuff, and no easier without the technical terms and jargon down pat...more difficult yet without having had my hands on anything beyond the outside of or attached to the valve body, and trying to visualize this stuff via text and some pictures and diagrams. I'll get better educated, I'm sure, and this will begin to make more sense.

 

[Baseranger]

Automatic transmissions take some time to fully understand. It took me a while, but it will come to you eventually.

 

[fletcher969]

Alright...finally got enough time to drop the pan a little while ago. Here's what I observed:

1) There were small specks roughly the size of course pepper on the bottom of the pan though sporadically populated versus absolute coverage, and which had also collected in a couple of spots. Most of what I sampled felt like sand or grit between my fingers, but almost every bit I sampled in my mouth (used my teeth to "feel" them) proved to be a rubbery material...or at least it was pliable or crumbled between my teeth. Most definitely reminds me of a gasket-like material, or something very similar. I did NOT find this in my pan 2000 miles ago when I dropped the pan and serviced my tranny. I did find 4 or 5 course-pepper-sized metal pieces...slightly more than I found during the previous pan drop.

2) There was a very thin blackish "sludge" (for lack of a better term) on the bottom of the pan, but neither it nor my fluid have a burnt smell. Perhaps it's related to the blackish gasket-like material observed above.

3) My fluid is reddish in color, but it has an automotive metal flake paint look to it (there is a baby-powder-sized material floating around in it)...something I observed during the last pan drop. I also found this "baby powder" (obviously metal) material stuck to my magnet just as I did during the last pan drop.

So...I'm grasping at what little hope I can for a relatively easy and less costly fix versus something that requires a total rebuild, which I don't have the financial or garage resources to pull off very easily, if at all. Question though...any chance the gasket-like material can be related to the type of failure that could cause a sudden/instantaneous failure of all forward gears, leaving only reverse operable, and if so...where might that be if not otherwise obvious when I pull the valve body tomorrow?

Thanks.

 

[Baseranger]

The clutch friction material is a plyable, soft, non magnetic substance. Metal that will react to a magnet means nothing good. The drums, input/output shaft, bands, parts of the pump, and the clutch plates are the only things made out of that kind of metal. If that is floating around in any concentration, your trans needs to be disassembled and rebuilt.

 

[fletcher969]

Here's what I found when I dropped the valve body today:

1) The "top" gasket on the top side of the backplate (the one attached to the main housing) was blown out where "Top Side" is indicated in the attached image (the boomerang shape approximates its shape, size, and location) . Looking at the actual gasket, it is obvious there are at least 2 channels that have unintentionally "merged" as a result of this breach, and possibly a third channel. Most definitely, the stirrup-shaped port merges with the smaller round port at which it's pointing (i.e. fluid would easily flow from one to the other).

2) The lower gasket below the backplate (the one attached to the valve body) appeared to be be breached (not totally sure) where "Bottom Side" is indicated in the image, which would flow back to the pan. I only say it "appeared" to be breached, because everywhere else the gasket had a consistent coloring, but here it had a distinct darkness to it (I noticed it quite easily), as if fluids had been flowing or "leaking" past it.

Note: Only one gasket is depicted in the attached image, but the "top" and "bottom" indications are on two different gaskets (i.e. top and bottom gaskets...pretty obvious, but hey). My camera isn't available to take pictures of the actual gaskets, so I borrowed an image from online.

Anyway, I suppose the material I found in the bottom of the pan might approximate the amount of valve body gasket material I saw missing (there wasn't a lot, really), but who knows? At this point I'm about to junk my truck if this is a dead end, but I can't do so without at least asking if there is any possibility if the gasket breaches indicated could result in a loss of my forward gears only, or at all, or in combination with something else valve body related? I'm pretty sure what the answer will be, but "nothing ventured, nothing gained," and I just have to ask before I write this truck off. Still hoping I can fix this thing with a rebuilt valve body...

Thanks.

 

[fletcher969]

Interesting, but elsewhere on this forum, I was reading about another's tranny problems, and jrpdash9 asked him if his ABS light was on. I wouldn't have thought that would have any correlation whatsoever to a tranny issue, but perhaps it's worth mentioning, because my ABS light came on about the same time I started to notice a slight change in my tranny's behavior. Is there something significant in that? It's worth noting that I scanned for DTCs using a Actron CP9580L, and it didn't detect any ABS codes when I read for them.

 

[martianable]

Similar situation here

Hi Fletcher969 and Baseranger

I am also experiencing tranny issues, and while I'll admit I'm not as well versed as both of you, I am willing to try a few things if I can stave off a major problem.

Here are the SYMPTOMS:
From park into Drive or Reverse it takes a few seconds to engage. I've been patient and let the truck begin moving before applying throttle.

Reversing up a hill causes a noticeable shudder.

First gear seems strong, but the transmission seems to 'slip' going into the higher gears especially third? ( around 30 35mph ? ) - If I am 'on it' and trying to get somewhere fast it will 'bump' hard into the next gear at 35 mph or so. Not so hard of a bump into the lower gear around 25 mph.

It seems to be revving a little high on the highway, but I'm not sure as I just bought this truck and don't really have a point of reference. I do wish it would rev lower though and have a little more oomph at the higher speeds. I've been babying it though.
It has an O/D button which seems to drop a gear if I turn it off on the highway.

When I first got the truck I warmed up the tranny and checked the fluid - it was way high ( checked while warm - engine running in park ) so I did the following.

FIXES:

1. drained a bit of fluid out via siphon tube.
2. Bought new fluid / filter / gasket
3. Changed the filter and 4 qts of fluid. Seemed low so I added 2/3 qt more - then realized it was too much and took more out via siphon - I think I have it right now.

RESULTS:

When I drained the trans fluid initially it seemd to help
When I changed the trans filter and fluid I thought it really helped though the bump still existed in the intermediate gears.
After a few days of driving, it all seems to be back to the same old tranny.

I am hoping to keep this truck awhile, but would also like to fix this issue before it gets worse.
I've seen this write up:
http://www.ford-trucks.com/article/idx/9/343/article/Common_Fix_For_4r55e__5r55e_Transmissions_With_A_Bad_Separator_Plate_And_Valve_Body_Gasket.html

would it be a good idea to try ?

I've also noticed a writeup on the ford ranger forum regarding doing something at the top of the trans ( replacing a module ? ) but I cannot find that writeup now - ( nor am I sure it applies to my model trans ) - I'll post that if I find it -

Thanks in advance for your input -

Fletcher969 - still have your truck ?

 

[martianable]

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is this forum actually working ?