Three problems related to manual transmission have been reported for the 1996 Ford Explorer. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
I currently own a 1996 Ford Explorer XLT, 4x4, 5-speed manual transmission. One thing I have noticed with this vehicle is when I am either stopping moderately hard/fast or making sharp right turns, the engine tends to stall. This only happens when the transmission is in neutral or I have the clutch in. The main reason this is a problem is because when the vehicle is stalled, the power steering is off. Most of my problems have been on off ramps where I'm traveling realitively fast and a right turn. Towards the end of the ramp I start to straigten out the wheel and realize I can't move it. Generally I am forced to slam on the breaks before running into something or if I have enough time, I will quickly attempt to start it. There was no specific incident date. This did not start to happen until after my 30-day warranty was up at from the dealer so I have not had anything done to attempt to fix it. I have found on the internet that several Explorers have had this problem. Some people blamed it on a valve. Below are listed websites where people have submitted to forums. These are people in similar situations as myself. . Read more...
Consumer had taken vehicle to dealer regarding transmission problems on seven occasions, when shifted into reverse, vehicle will hesitate and then pop into reverse after 15-20 seconds, vehicle will not always go in reverse, dealer stated that transmission was going, but not to do anything until all gears were affected.
Front end is misaligned and the mud was found in the transmission.