New forum member and new Ranger owner here. I recently bought a 1987 Ranger 2.3l automatic. You can see my introduction thread here:
Introduction

First thing I noticed is the shift linkage was off a little. The shift lever wouldn't lock into OD like it should. Instead it was mostly in the N position when the transmission was actually in OD. Harmless at first I thought. Let me get to the point I tend to over explain.

So my father and I checked the fluid levels and took it up the road for a shakedown. According to the previous owner the transmission was "toast". To the point where he had it towed to his house where it sat until I bought it. Said it was slipping gears. So on our maiden test drive we fully expected plenty of slipping. Surprisingly there was no slipping at all. I even installed a tach so I could closely monitor the rpms. Now we didn't drive it far but there was absolutely no slipping. I even put the pedal to the floor at about 35 mph it downshifted just fine and there was no slipping.

So here are my questions and concerns. Maybe the transmission just never got hot enough to slip... IDK. You would think it would slip when cold. Or is it... Is it the previous owner failed to get the shift lever in the right position. Because when the lever would lock into the indicated OD position it felt like it was actually between OD and D. Could that cause the transmission to slip? At this point that's sort of what we suspect. My father was an experienced mechanic many years ago but neither of us are transmission experts. Let me know what you guys think. Thanks