Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
can happen in all gears. sometimes seams to be triggered by turns or bumpy roads.can be felt as a slight shaking almost like e brake is on Sounds like a train with the brakes locked.
any suggestions? checked brakes and u-joints...thats not it.
Clutch?
good luck
gone.Thanks to Steve at Augie's junk yard
When locking in 4 wheel the transmission is slipping is there an adjustment you can make on the sprocket chain on the transmission (transfer case) ???
I have a 2nd interview tomorrow, all indications are that I will finally be hired after 4 years unemployed now this luck. The job is 50 miles away and the only way there is through the Cajon summit(moderate elevation mtn. pass) I have read stories of being able to drive forward even though there is no reverse gear. I can deal with this of course. I am just afraid of the whole tranny going out completely.
I have never had a problem other than hard shifts from 1st to 2nd since I got my ranger with 86k mi.
But I would think just dropping the tranny pan and cleaning (if it is just a metal screen) or replacing the filter and refilling with new fluid would not 'break anything loose'.
But with 212,000 miles, this might a waste of money. Money might be better spent on a rebuild or trying to find a used tranny with some kind a warranty. But another thing to think about - what is the truck worth? $1,000? Putting $1,000 (? who knows) into a tranny might also not be money well spent. Might be time to just sell it for salvage.
Transmission fluid is cooled by running it thru a 'tank' that is actually inside one of the 'side tanks' on the main radiator. You can see two lines that run from the transmission to the radiator.
You may have a leak in this tank. Coolant in the radiator is getting into the transmission thru this tank. This shows as the transmission being overfilled. I would think it would completely lock up the transmission rather quickly, but maybe not.
Does the transmission dip stick look like it might have water on it? The fluid should be a consistent red color. Does it foam? Are there streaks?
When the truck is cold, open the radiator cap. Is there 'oil' on the top of the coolant. This might be transmission fluid.
This might not be your problem, but it's something to check.
The tranny fluid is dirty but not real bad, and doesnt smell to bad, its also full. Ive also done a fuel injection about 2000 miles ago.
Please help thank you so much!
- 1993 Ford Ranger, Automatic trans, 160k miles
- Often sits for a few weeks before being driven
- Had been hard shifting into 1st or reverse when coming out of park
- Have added trans fluid to it a couple of times, when I did the hard shifting stopped
- Have recently noticed it being a little smoky near exhaust - thought maybe something was burning in fuel but not sure (or could be an unrelated problem)
- This week it started hard shifting again, noticed the smokiness even more
- Trans started slipping, a little smoke could be seen coming from the engine compartment - thinking fluid is leaking somewhere and burning up
- Tried to add fluid and a fair amount of it ended up on the driveway
- Trans barely engages now (not driving it)
- Have not gotten underneath to look at things yet - want to know what to look for
So... I'm reasonable saavy with mechanic work (do my own brakes, starters, alternators). I need to know what I should look for. I'm pretty sure there's a major leak now since the fluid I put in ended up on the driveway. In one of the posts I saw something about a hose and vacuum device of some sort that helped supply fluid. This certainly sounds like a possibility.
Hopefully I didn't fry the transmission by driving it almost dry - it was a couple of miles to get home when it had started slipping badly, but it happened very quickly. The day before there had been no slipping.
Any thoughts would be helpful!
Thanks! Brian
- you lost a fluid line between the transmission and radiator
- the trans fill/dipstick tube has rotted at the transmission end
- the trans pan has rusted and developed a hole
- the trans pan gasket has rotted
Since fluid immediately came out when adding, that'll probably rule out #1, but check that anyway in case it's showing wear or it's part of a compound problem.
KCRam - Pickups/Wagons/Vans+Minivans Host
I guess you could drive it long enough to pull a lot of the tranny fluid out and burn it. Or, if the modulator is bad, and the rubber line is bad, fluid might directly leak out there.
KCRam - Pickups/Wagons/Vans+Minivans Host
I added some more fluid and looked for a leak. Nothing. I started the engine and ran it for several minutes, tried to engage it in Reverse and Drive. It would not engage. No leaks. I checked the fluid level and it appeared to be OK. Stupid me, I had assumed that the leak meant that I'd lost all of the fluid but now I'm not so sure. In the past it had been losing fluid over time, so I was used to topping it off. Is it possible that I put in too much and it overflowed?
So, anyway, it is not leaking, neither will it engage into gear at all. Before all of this happened, it was shifting smoothly and all of this changed within 10 miles of driving. There was definitely smoke coming out of the back end exhaust. So, I really think that the problem is the vacuum modulator and that it has completely blown out and is not providing any pressure/vacuum at all. Would this be a possible explanation of why it won't engage into any gear at all?
I can get a new modulator valve pretty inexpensively, so I'm game to go ahead and change it. Since I couldn't get super close to the tranny underneath, I couldn't see exactly where the valve is. Is it on the passenger side where the rod also comes in? There was something towards the back of the tranny that came in on the passenger side, but it had wires coming into it and I didn't think this valve had any electrical connections.
If you can tell me where to look for it, I'll try and get it jacked up a little higher so I can get under there a little more easily. Or, I could lose about 50 lbs and that would help too (except for my big head - mostly ego).
Thanks again for all of your help!
I left a reply yesterday to one of KCRam's responses (#300). Since you both had replied separately I wasn't sure whom to reply to. :-)
Anyway, I picked up the vacuum modulator. I think I see a place where there is a steel and rubber line. If I did my research properly, this is an A4LD transmission? I need to know where it is located to be sure and any recommendations for how to remove the old and put in the new. Is it on the passenger side? I don't see any threading, so I wasn't sure what held it in - I just see a thin rubber gasket around the main shaft part. I wouldn't think it would just push in? The steel line is the other question - how does it attach?
I took a couple of quick cell phone pictures for my reference, I'm going to go back and look at them and see if I can get a better idea.
Thanks!
Brian
KCRam - Pickups/Wagons/Vans+Minivans Host