What's the 'Must Have' service guide?

Use the search keywords "ford explorer manual" on eBay for the Ford service CD/DVD. The same one's the dealers use. They contain all the service info you would ever need to know.

Thanks Gordo!

I'm having transmission shifting problems, I will check this out before I (gulp) take it to get looked at by the local shop. The horror stories I've heard, where transmissions are concerned....

I hope you don't have any real serious transmission problems, but brace yourself just in case. My '94 Explorer had all kinds of tranny problems and I had to have it replaced. One work of advice though, do not buy a new transmission from Ford. It will end up giving you the exact same problems as the one you currently have in there. Make sure that the transmission you do get, it you have to, has had all the upgrades done to it. That's what I did anyways on the recommendation from the tranny shop.

I've had the opposite experience with transmissions for my Chrysler minivans. The transmission shop recommended having my transmission rebuilt by them, with "upgrades", at greater expense than having a factory reman installed. It sounded good.

But it only lasted a year, the two factory remans lasted 4 or 5. I would imagine the factory product is more predictable, your local shop could well be better... or worse.

-Paul

My only problem has been a really hard shift from 1st into 2nd gear that just started recently. I suspect it might be the Pennzoil "Multi-Vehicle" ATF fluid that Jiffy Lube put in a few thousand miles back, but I want to get a troubleshooting guide anyway and just in case that's not it.