Lost all gears while driving

30

Asked by carpenter715 May 26, 2014 at 01:06 PM about the 2003 Ford Explorer Sport

Question type: General

While driving down the highway with cruise on i lost all gears. No noise or warning of any
kind.  Won't even engage park.  What am I looking at.  2000 ford explorer v6 4x4

38 Answers

57,865

Typically, your Transmission will need overhauling. You can try turning off the O/D to limp home. I don't understand "won't even engage park" unless you mean that the Parking pawl won't hold the vehicle. You might look at your linkage adjustment at the Transmission.

5 people found this helpful.
25,285

I answered this question hours ago and the thing I asked was about the won't go into park! The person never described it more and just reasked the same question!

4 people found this helpful.
25,285

got another 428 on our hands (that's the guy that posts endless questions about how fast......)

4 people found this helpful.
30

when i put shifter into park it grinds and doesnt engage.. vehicle is like in nuetral I ve never been on this site b4 so pardon me for not knowing how well to communicate

3 people found this helpful.
25,285

ok - Tracy,dandyoun,Jamnblues & hey-you around Sarge - what stops the pawl from sliding into place?

3 people found this helpful.
6,095

whoah boys !!! that's your transfer case not the transmission ... put the trans in park with the motor OFF and then start it .. while still in park shift your transfer case into any gear besides the one that it's in now .. like low range or something . then shift the transmission to neutral and then to drive and see what happens . if it goes it's not broke just put trans back in neutral and return transfer case to high and place transmission in drive ... let me know what you have then

8 people found this helpful.
6,095

you may have accidently bumped the stick or turned the switch while driving PBN

4 people found this helpful.
57,865

Hmmmm Peter - that's a possibility. What caught my attention though was the fact that it happens going down the Highway. This vehicle has Electronic 4x4 controls, there is no "Stick" to bump. And @dipstick - the spring that engages the parking pawl can break and prevent it from fully engaging the teeth on the output shaft - zzzzzzzzz!

5 people found this helpful.
25,285

Way to go Tracy - the symptoms are wierd (grinding while trying to go into PARK and lost all engagement while going down the highway) - nothing is working and it all failed at the same time? Is the only answer a new tranny or is it possible that something is going on here that can be explained?

3 people found this helpful.
25,285

Solving the problem and finding the cause is the challenge! In my game the discovery of embezzlement is only the symptom - the challenge is finding out what broke down? What allowed the embezzler to embezzle? Then FIX IT - you usually don't replace all the employees and trash the computers - you FIX IT..

2 people found this helpful.
6,095

did you guys try what I suggested ? PS- it grinds going into park because the transfer case is in neutral ... think about it ... shut the motor off ,put tranny in park start motor shift transfer case into another gear and try to drive it .... PBN

4 people found this helpful.
6,095

maybe your servo that shifts the transfer case is bad or has a blown fuse or a bad circuit breaker ... since it's electronic

1 people found this helpful.
6,095

if your parking pawl were broken you wouldn't get anything .. no noise no nothing .. just like neutral

2 people found this helpful.
25,285

okay I guess you know this guy's vehicle shift set up well. I didn't know you could ACCIDENTLY put a transfer case into neutral while driving.Why would that even be possible? That sounds like a design defect in my books,

4 people found this helpful.
57,865

God I miss Judge_Roy. He knew better than to believe his own BS.

1 people found this helpful.
6,095

I'm thinking I've been setup again .... Hmmm ,OH yea its a ten 79 alright .... let's see if I'm correct ...

1 people found this helpful.
25,285

notify coroner - why would you want to do that?

3 people found this helpful.
25,285

@Peter - I guess parts replacing Tracy isn't coming back......."your Transmission will need overhauling" was Tracy's first thought. It's always your something needs replacing,get a new whatever with Tracy. I figure you're on the money - somehow the transfer case got into neutral and when they tried to put it in park the pawl was hitting the engaged tranny.

2 people found this helpful.
6,095

yea I remember Tracy ... some people will do anything for points . I'm just an old school wrench that likes to share information .... and have some fun !!!

1 people found this helpful.
25,285

I agree - try to figure what is wrong by looking at the symptoms and look for a solution that is the most economical yet not Mickey Mouse. (a little Tinker Bell Magic is okay though),,,10 46

3 people found this helpful.
6,095

absolutely , Tinker bell magic is the same thing as inside information !!! LOL

2 people found this helpful.
25,285

to Peter with the red Cuda- have added you to my list of who's naughty or nice; you're in the nice column .

3 people found this helpful.
6,095

why thank you ... thank you very much !

1 people found this helpful.
25,285

And one last comment - I SURE DO HOPE that this questioner tried to FOLLOW YOUR STEPS to his " transfer case " issue; BEFORE he rebuilt his tranny....IF YOU READ ANY OF MY ANSWERS on other questions ( as you go through this site) you will notice that: 1/..I first question if the question being asked is even real?....2/ then ;as I did on this one--a/..I asked for details about PARK?...b/..stir up others' ideas --"what stops the pawl from sliding into place.?"...c/. .I might get a TAD PLAYFUL with whomever is following [I had my answer by then]...."grinding while going into park AND lost engagement while driving?".."is it possible something going on here!"...d/..I kept watching the question....e/..It died (I figure it was a bogus question to start.) f/..gave Peter a thumbs up.........f/..conversed with you because you were working at fixing a problem AND you had 2+2=4.......P.S. I wasn't to sure about about the ACCIDENTLY went into neutral when I read that [I asked a playful question] but you had already caught that with your answer to Tracy "" ok bad servo or fuse or breaker""";which you posted while I was hunting & pecking my post.

4 people found this helpful.
25,285

@ Peter -- keep up giving your honest thoughtful answers and WATCH for the questioners that ask silly/incomplete/weird questions. I KNOW that A LOT of the QUESTIONS being asked ARE PURE BALONEY from PHONY people.......catch you later.

3 people found this helpful.
6,095

you are right about the phony questions part ... like I said some people will do anything for points

1 people found this helpful.
25,285

What is this points thingy anyway? What's it for?

1 people found this helpful.
6,095

I think it is supposed to reflect what kind of mechanic you are IE what level .... if you have more points you are therefore a better mechanic ... but all this is pure BS because all it takes is a half dozen "friends" to compliment each others bullshit questions with even greater bullshit answers and then post as "helpful" yea right ... how long have you been posting "answers" anyway ?

3 people found this helpful.
25,285

I found this site by accident about a month ago when I had a couple of questions about my car and the owner's manual didn't cover . I was too cheap to by a shop manual and any free ones asked for too much info. So I asked a question on here and did indeed get an answer. Started reading and asked a question or two and answering ones that I knew about or had experienced. Still reading and answering. The points thing to me seemed to reflect if what you said was of interest to someone. I contacted the site and suggested that maybe other feed back could be included rather than just HELPFUL. I'd like to know if my input was interesting....helpful. I'd rather let the person know that I found it interesting; maybe informative rather than just helpful.

1 people found this helpful.
25,285

I'd like to be able to chose: 1/helpful......2/interesting.....3/informative....4/enjoyed the topic......just to let the person, that has taken the time to write, that their effort was appreciated. Car repair and history etc. are all of interest.

1 people found this helpful.
40

Hey carpenter715 So after all the the great advice what was the problem tcase or tranny. I have a 2003 ford f150 4x4 with the exact same problem..was driving at 60 km and lost all gears plus no park and no I didnt put it in nutraul by accident and nor is this a bogus question.any help would be awsome.

2 people found this helpful.
20

Okay carpenter 715 what is the answer? Exact same problem with my 2003 F150 Crew 4x4 except that after sitting for a few days it will drop into gear hard and drive a few blocks before quitting again.

20

The answer is the transfer case. Took it apart and what do you know? Broken tabs on the reduction gear shift fork, broken hub and coil assembly, and broken/seized oil pump. Which came first I do not know, but the reduction gear showed severe overheating and may have seized on to the input shaft when it was hot causing the shift fork to break. It moved freely when cold which might explain why the truck would move for a short while.

2 people found this helpful.

I came across this post cause my truck is doing the same thing! Hopefully someone (Peter) will still see this and have some input. I have a 97 f150, 5.4L 4x4. It was driving fine , I turned a corner and list everything, I did what Peter suggested and was able to get it driving again but it seems to be in limp mode now. Would it still be the transfer case ?

the 4x4 transfer case just likes to put its self in neutral and the only gears available will be 4x4 low I'm looking to find this problem on my vehicle because it will then only be in 4x4 low

but while in 4x4 low you will at least get places, and on the matter of solving the problem it is either a faulty transfer motor or transfer case

I have the same thing going on with my 03 f150 4x4... pulled the shift motor Manuel made sure it was in 2hi still nothing.. so the problems inside the tcase case??

20

I would say that the problem is definitely the transfer case. They are not hard to pull out or disassemble so grab a wrench and a friend (or a good jack) and have at it. Let us know what you find. My guess, shift fork broken or hub/coil failure.

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