Hi all,

So I am one of seemlingly numerous ranger owners that has a broken flex plate (pretty sure from symptoms).

I am looking for a (preverably video) guide on how to replace this in a 1998 era 4wd 4.0. I would also love help if there is an incredibly kind soul who is willing to wrench with me in the garage. (I can compensate or trade).

I am pretty confident doing automechanics, I have just never owned an automatic in my life and I have not ever messed with a transmission. I am hoping this can be changed without full dropping the transmission. Shops are charging $1800+ to swap these so I would like to do it if possible and also replace the spacer. If it was $500 for labor I would just hand over cash lol.

 

You will need to remove the transmission from the truck. There won't be any other way to get at the flexplate crankshaft bolts.

 

Well I pulled the starter off and it definitely looks broken.

my question is if I should replace the spacer at the same time. My goal is to pull the transmission back vs drop the whole thing.

I understand how to do the flex plate but I’m not sure how to replace the crank spacer. Will there be enough room? I don’t have the new plate to also break and then have to go through this again.

 

Welcome to the forum

Spacer will be fine to reuse
Drop the transmission out, there will not be enough room, the bell housing will hit the firewall, but you can try

And if its your first automatic re-install you need to SEAT THE TORQUE CONVERTER on the transmission FIRST!!!!!!!, or you WILL RUIN the transmission, and need a total rebuild

Google: how to seat torque converter

Watch the 2 min video, ALL automatics are the same in this regard

 

yuck, that will be fun to realign. I’m going to look at it tonight. It seemed like there was space.

if I drop it do I need to take off the transfer case to drop it as well?

thanks for the tip on the torque converter. I did see how to align them if they are removed but I thought it would already be fully seated.

 

its lighter without transfer case, of course, but still heavy
And its easier to re-install without transfer case attached, less akward

Yes, if torque converter stays in bell housing it will stay seated, but if it slides out an inch or two it needs to be re-seated

 

The upper bolts on the transfercase look terrible to get at if the transmission is not already dropped.

 

So update.....

I got the flexplate out. You do have to drop the transmission a bit but not all the way out. I undid the exhaust but could not get it out because the crossmember that holds the transmission does not come all the way out, only the middle bit does. Anyway those bolts on the top of the tranny suck to get at, putting it all back together is going to be hell. Wish me luck on that part.

I also left the transfercase on the transmission and its not in the way. It actually acts as a nice counter weight.

The flexplate looks like a ford original, but the bolts seemed to be too tight, definitely not 55ftlbs. The plate broke in a perfect circle right around them.

 

Yes, that is where the most torque is, at the center of flex plate around the bolts, so that's where they break

Wire tie or tape ALL the wires out of the way above bell housing when mating trans back to the engine
Common issue is wires getting pinched between engine and bell housing when mating trans/engine

 

Well, I got it all back together that night, at roughly 3am. I think if I did it over I would leave the exhaust in place. After the fact, I know that if I drop the tranmission a bit after taking off the rear cross member, and exhaust mount attached to it, you can drop the rear of the tranmission enough to get at everything.

I am now having some vibrating noise in drive and reverse (not nutral or park). Im not sure what this is. One of my thoughts is that the rear tansmission mount is pretty shot, so it all sags. I want to replace that, but Im not sure its the issue. The sound goes away when driving and it seems to shift fine. Bassically its only there when I am stopped and in gear. Possibly something was damaged when the flexplate broke? Tomorrow I will check the fluid and pull the starter again to look at it. Im also getting a whirring/quiethowl from the engine bay which might be the AC or starter, I havent tracked it down.

So if anyone else is reading this... process is as follows. Please be aware I may have missed a step so proceed with obvious caution.

1. Remove battery terminal
2. Remove starter
3. Remove Rear dirve shaft and front prop (4wd)
4. Disconnect wires to transmission and transfer case (there are some brackets to take off too)
5. Jack transmission a tiny bit and remove crosmembers
6. Remove rear transmission mount and exhaust mount attached to it
7. Drop transmission untill you can see top two bellhousing bolts
8. Get those loose with many entensions and a 15mm socket
9. Get the second two 11am and 1pm locaiton bolts as well
10. Disconnect coolant lines
11. Lift transmisison back up to levelish
12. remove the rest of the bellhousing bolts (celebrate a little)
13. Pull the tranmission back to clear studs
14. Drop trnasmission about 3 inches and pull it back more
15. You should have plenty of room to work now.
16. Replace what you need to replace and then put it back to gether in reverse.
17. (credit Ron) Definitley look out for cables getting pinched in the bellhousing. Also worth using zipties to re-secure some of the cables.

If I did this again, it would take 6 hours I think. It took me two days because I spent a full day and a tank of MAPP getting the exhaust bolts unfrozen. Its not worth the fight unless you have a single piece crossmemeber, then maybe its worth it, but not necessary.