Ok so I am picking up a 93 Explorer from my mom. It is in Decent shape and drive pretty good.
It has a few problems though. The only one I am really concerned with is the Trans leak. My Step dad said it is the Vacuum module in the trans. Has any one had any experience with this and how hard is it to replace yourself?

Thanks

 

Can't go by that. The leak could be anything from a gasket to a main seal. You will need to visually inspect it or have a mechanic find the leak for you before we tell you how to change a "vacuum solenoid".

 

I Should be picking it up this weekend. What should i look for? Are there any problems areas I should Check first? I am pretty sure but I have to make sure, but the problem was diagnosed(sp) by an ASE certified mechanic. But I will make sure.

 

ok well Thanks for not helping at all. You would think as a "Ford Forum" you would help people. But you know that is fine. I have given up on this forum.

 

It's too bad you gave up so easily. there is lots of info on this forum, you just have to show some patience.

I had a problem with my '93 Explorer Transmisison. I got the exact instructions on this forum.

The key to a Vacuum Modulator leak is that some tranny fluid will be going into the engine. So as you check both levels of fluid, the tranny fluid is going down and the engine oil fluid is increasing. As bad as this may seem, it is easily fixable.

The Vacuum modulator is located on top of the transmission and is very difficult to get to from below. But Ford put a trap door on the floor board of the cab. You'll have to remove the center consol, which also requires you to remove both front seats. Under the carpet right in the middle is a trap door. Remove the trap door and the vacuum modulator is right there.

In total, if you're mechanically inclined, you can probably do this whole job in less than a couple of hours.

I did mine in probably 4 hours of combined time and I don't do much of this type of work. I knew I didn't want to pay to have this done.

Other symptoms that you might want to be aware of is lots of pinging, probably worse the longer it is in this condition. The engine may have a hard time starting, backfiring into the vacuum tree and quite possible blowing off any of the lead to the vacuum tree.

On a side note, I was concerned about having run the motor with tranny fluid flowing through it. I discovered that after replacing the vacuum modulator, the truck ran extremely well, very smooth. I came to find out that tranny fluid has a cleaning agent that did some cleaning number on the engine and now with over 200K miles on this engine, it is running strong.

Hope this helps and regains your faith in the forum.