91 escort gt tranny problem need help

I start the car in the morning. i can't get out of first until like 5 mins down the road. sometimes my reverse doesn't seem to work well. after it warms up it runs great. i don't know if the fluids/filter have been changed. how hard is it to do?

Not hard, but messy.

can u point me to a post that will show me how

Get a big drain pan. Remove the bolts. drop the pan. remove the filter. Get a filter and gasket. clean off old gasket. Put in new filter. Install new gasket and bolt up pan. fill with trany fluid with engine running to full mark on dip stick

thanks alot . any idea on how much it'll cost and how much fluid do i put in

About $25 plus 3-5 qt. transmissiom fluid.

thanks alot.

i noticed another problem. if i sit in park and try to rev it it is very slow to get up and only gets to about 4k

If it has been awhile, consider changing spark plugs and wires while you are at it. Another $30-40 or so depending on what parts you choose.
You may be revving slow due to a miss, but it could be something else.... a compression check is always a very useful test for something like this too.

well i just finsihed changing the fluids/filter. it drove like S*** like it was before. i parked it to make sure i had enough fluid in it now i can't get it to go forward or backward. what could be the problem now.

How many miles are on this car, and were they highway miles, or in-town miles?
The 2nd generation (91-96) Escorts used a 4EAT automatic transmission. I had a friend whose 93 Escort would stick in 1st gear until the tranny got warmed up - about 5 to 10 minutes of driving along at slow speed but with the engine howling at high rpm. He finally pulled the transmission and got it rebuilt. In our 92 Escort (with 190,000 highway miles on it) the tranny quit working one day when it wouldnt move forward after coming to a stop sign. Nor would it back up. Even after I poured in 2 quarts of ATF it would only turn the wheels if they were jacked up off the ground. So I removed and rebuilt the tranny. The only new parts that looked different from the old ones were the little pressure relief piston for the oil pump, and the spring for that pressure relief piston. The paperwork with the rebuild kit mentioned that low oil pump pressure at low rpm had been a problem with the 4EAT - hence a stronger spring and different relief valve piston were provided.
Most people would say your transmission needs rebuilt. But if I were in your situation and had a place where I could work on it, it might be worth putting in those two new parts, the spring and the piston, to see if the tranny would still work. They can both be installed in the tranny from underneath, without too much trouble, and without removing the pan again. While it may be a long shot - its much cheaper/faster than changing out the transmision.
The oil pump is at the end of the tranny furthest from the motor, and is made of cast iron, whereas the rest of the tranny case is aluminum. The oil pump spring and piston will drop out if you remove the hex head plug that is at the bottom of the oil pump. You might need to remove a plastic splash shield to reach this. If you can find a business that sells automatic transmission parts they can sell you a bubble-pack with just the 'improved' spring and relief valve piston for the 4EAT. I think they cost about $20. You would have to drain much of the ATF out of the transmission, or let it dribble out of the hole when you unscrew the plug below the spring. One business that advertises their transmission 'hard parts' on ebay is: ctpowertrain. You can also do a search on ebay for 4EAT and find used transmissions for sale - but I would make sure that any used tranny that goes into the car has had the new type of oil pump relief valve spring and piston installed before it goes into the car.
You may have to put a rod up into the bottom of the relief valve piston to get it to slide down. You will see how this is possible when you have the new little piston in hand.


I dont know why the engine wont rev up normally. If your car has reached 100,000 miles, it should have its timing belt replaced. If the timing belt has slipped a tooth - it may still start and run, but will be really feeble on power. A compression test would show this, as uniformly low compression on all cylinders. And it will soon slip another tooth too - then it wont start.

thanks for the info

i can't seem to find the location of this pump. can u give me some refrence points on it location. or maybe a picture if possible

Now THAT is some of the best advice I have seen around in awhile...

I would certainly do the same after hearing stories similar to yours... considering the cost and easy access, give that relief valve a try.

As for the lack of power, do you feel it is engine related or a result of the transmission problems?

i think its with the tranny. if i leave it in park she'll rev but if i put it in any gear it'll unly get up to about 4k. i still can't seem to find that pump either

... i still can't seem to find that pump either
I can see the pump housing and valve that denisond3 is referring to, in the Ford service manual for the 1995 4EAT automatic transmission (I don't have anything for the '91). I've uploaded it to here:

http://www.freewebs.com/selectron/95-4EAT-OPRV.htm

The cast-iron pump housing would be item 8 on the first diagram, and the pressure relief valve is shown in both diagrams. You should be able to identify it by the flat shoulder beside it, eh. However, I'm not familiar with your automatic transmissions so if somebody could confirm that please? Thanks.

Yes, the diagrams shows the pump removed from the tranny - but you dont want to unbolt the whole pump casting! You would only be able to see the outside bottom edge of the oil pump from under the car - next to the tranny oil pan. I remember the plug was a large hex, like 19mm or larger, maybe 13/16th or 7/8ths. I had a .jpg of my transmission sitting on the workbench, but I dont seem to be able to attach a photo. If anyone knows how I can insert a picture I would be glad to learn that.
When you take the plug out, be ready to catch the ATF that will come out, along with the washer, spring, and piston. I doubt the ATF will run out and just stop - it will probably continue to dribble more and more slowly for a while.

Thanks for confirming that, denisond3. There is a 'Gallery' feature here at AF but I've never looked into it, so I'm not sure if it can be used for inserting photos into threads or not.

For a quick and easy photo upload (no registration required), just go to http://imageshack.us/ - click on 'Browse' and then click on 'Host it'. When the page refreshes it will give you a selection of links - the second link - 'Thumbnail for forums (1)' - will work on here, giving a little clickable thumbnail picture which, when clicked on opens the full-size image, so just copy that and then paste it into your post.

Or you could open a free account at http://photobucket.com/ - you can then create folders, set the account to either Private or Public Access, etc, so it's much more flexible. When uploading to Photobucket, first login and then click on 'Browse', then on 'Upload'. When the page refreshes, it will give a selection of links - the 'IMG Code' link will work on here so copy that and then paste it into your forum post. The image will then appear full-size in your post, or to simply provide a link to the image but without the picture itself appearing in your post, then the 'Direct Link' would be the one to use - again, just copy and paste it into your post.

i found a junk yard that has the tranny i need but i have to remove it myself and have no idea where to start. can someone point me to a guide or something

You should get the Chiltons or Haynes manual, or even the Ford Corp. Service Manual for the car, and read the sections for transmission removal. Then you should practise by working on the Escort you have - to learn all of the wrench sizes, etc. If you are lucky, there will be an Escort in the salvage yard that has already had its engine removed.
Removing the tranny myself in a junkyard is more than I would want to tackle, though I remove engines/transmissions at home as a leisure-time activity. I dont work fast, and it would take me at least a couple of days to remove a transmission. However the guys who work in junkyards seem to do it in a couple of hours, because they use a fork lift to raise the car -you DO have to get underneath- and probably a cutting torch or large bolt cutters.
It will make a BIG difference in removal if you are able to use a oxyacetylene cutting torch or a power driven abrasive cut-off wheel. If its in a salvage yard, they will have rules about what you can destroy to get the tranny loose. Because you could save much time by cutting the axle shafts in two, but the axle shafts are also commonly saleable items - they may not allow you to cut them unless you buy them. (In Northern Virginia, no salvage yard will let me to bring my cutting torch into the yard, due to fire regulations). If you arent allowed to cut the axles, you will have to remove the axles from the hubs - which will involves disconnecting the lower control arm from the ball joint at the bottom of the hub assembly. Also you would need to remove the hubnuts with the front wheels on the ground - because the hubnuts are large and take a lot of torque to undo; with the wheels on the ground, they wont rotate as you stand on the pipe-extension to the breaker bar to remove them. I think you would need a deep socket, the 6 point kind, not the 12 point kind. You can check the needed size on your own Escort. I had to do a lot of hammering to get one axle shaft out of the splined hole in the hub assembly!
Some of the pick-n-pull yards have portable hoisting frames, but you may need to bring your own 'hoist'. I used a cheap Chinese fence tensioner (a.k.a. a 'come-along') to lift out the engine of my Escort, followed by the engine. The instructions in the Escort service manual say to drop the sub-frame that is below the transmission in order to be able to pry the axle shaft out of the rear of the transmission. I had to rebuild the engine anyway - and with the engine out of the car, getting the tranny out was a lot easier.

If the car is not stacked in a junkyard and is able to be jacked up a bit, it will be easiest to remove the tranny from the bottom. Support the engine by using wooden or some other kind of block under the oil pan once the front end is up high... and be sure to support the rest of the vehicle well with jack stands too since you will be working under there.
With the left front wheel/hub/axle removed the tranny will come out very easily through the bottom.