5r55e rebuilt tranny and its almost right but not quite

[trader007]

5r55e rebuilt tranny and its almost right but not quite *Update! Info!

FIXED!

talked to the shop that sold me the tranny. they said to try swapping out the sensors on the outside of the tranny, because different years had different ohms across the terminals.

swapped sensors, and checked ohm while doing it. the same. and of course, it didnt fix the problem.

got a little frustrated, then decided to just put the old valve body on the new tranny. BINGO! it runs slick as sh*t! i can floor it now and it will still shift right to 2nd when its supposed to. and overdrive works perfect too! this tranny shifts so smooth it almost feels like a constant velocity one

i am going to call those guys and see if they want to fix this rebuilt valve body- or at least figure out why it didnt work right.... heck of a lot better shipping that then the whole tranny back!!!

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original message------------------------------






so i bought a rebuilt 5r55e for my ranger. installed fine, and it does work OK.

1st problem-

when i give it some good pedal, it doesnt want to shift out of first. just goes until it hits about 4krpm then it slowly shifts to second and eventually settle in. if i just drive normally, it shifts on time but it does shift into 2nd gear fairly hard. it also likes to kick down to 1st hard when im slowing down.

2nd problem- no overdrive. when i get going fast enough that overdrive would normally kick in, it doesnt and the o/o light flashes. im still not sure if this problem is intermittent, because it doesnt seem to happen right at first... it usually takes a few stops and starts before the o/o starts flashing. it might be related to problem #1 is what im thinking... the upper 3 gears shift so smooth its hard to tell when it happens... i have no rpm guage (it works sometimes, but rarely)

anyone familiar with 5r55e rebuilds, and what might shops choose to ignore that would cause my problems? other then those two things, the tranny does feel really REALLY tight. it feels brand new. so i can tell they did some things to it, im just not sure if they did a full rebuild...

 

[Earl43P]

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=109

^ Pretty much the holy grail for 5R issues like yours, read up!

I could hazard a few guesses like valve body, its gasket, solenoids and whatnot, but it's not my area of expertise at all. Good luck.

 

[trader007]

thanks for the link, that is awesome.

yesterday, in preperation for a code scan, i pulled the battery cable and let the computer reset. i drove it a few times today, getting it warm and re-creating the errors in shifting so the computer can see it.

im going to go scan it now.

 

[trader007]

OK

did a recorded scan. everything seemed normal. tranny is getting the right speed, its commanding the gears in time, and when it gets to overdrive it does engage.

thing is, the ratio is wrong just like the code says. it drops to .75 like it should, but as soon as i give it gas the ratio goes up. telling me that the band is slipping. then the computer sees that, it locks out overdrive and throws that code.

so i dropped the pan and the valve body. everything looks good. new gasket was in it, and it looks like the solenoids are new (seems like it anyway). from the parts of the bands i can see look good too.

the bands were a little out of adjustment. the intermediate was a turn loose. the overdrive was pretty good. i think this is because the intermediate was actually being used so it stretched a little. and since the overdrive band was slipping, it was never tight so it never stretched.

so i readjusted them to proper spec, and put it all back together. no change. little tighter shifts though!

so, i figured since everything else was looking right, it had to be the overdrive servo. i couldnt think of anything else it could be. its not fixed yet, but i think the overdrive servo was never replaced. it doesnt look new, it has a ford emblem on it (oem), and the rubber is very hard. its not brittle yet, but it doesnt seem like good rubber. and when you get it in place, its a little wiggly.

so, now am at a crossroads. if it is original, then the bore might need to be drilled out. i think im going to just buy a servo and see if it fits, and go from there. for now though, at least i can drive the thing. i just have to be easy on 2nd gear.

 

[Kevery]

I bought a rebuilt 5r55e trany two years ago and had some simular problems only to find out that my trany was overheating. The culprit was my radiator. The motor wasn't overheating so my temp gage didn't show anything but the trany didn't want to shift into second gear like normal and it wouldn't go into overdrive. I'm not a trany guy either and it sound like you know alot more about them then I do but I thought I would throw this out there.

 

[trader007]

while the 2nd gear and overdrive DO seem to work a little better when i first start the truck and go- the problems are still there. i think its just because the band is stickier when its cold... but its still slipping.

 

[trader007]

FIXED!

talked to the shop that sold me the tranny. they said to try swapping out the sensors on the outside of the tranny, because different years had different ohms across the terminals.

swapped sensors, and checked ohm while doing it. the same. and of course, it didnt fix the problem.

got a little frustrated, then decided to just put the old valve body on the new tranny. BINGO! it runs slick as sh*t! i can floor it now and it will still shift right to 2nd when its supposed to. and overdrive works perfect too! this tranny shifts so smooth it almost feels like a constant velocity one

i am going to call those guys and see if they want to fix this rebuilt valve body- or at least figure out why it didnt work right.... heck of a lot better shipping that then the whole tranny back!!!