shifting funny - jumping from gear to gear

amy · #1 08-29-2010, 07:44 AM

I'm new to this forum, so apologize if someone else has already posted about these problems. I'd appreciate any help you can offer, as the dealer I bought it from has turned out to be quite useless.... telling me all is well.

I have an automatic 93 ranger, 3.0L which I bought in May. It behaves a bit funny, and I'll do my best to explain....

1. It takes an extremely long time to engage in reverse - is this normal?

2. When driving in OD, it seems to shift like crazy (back and forth) when going up a hill, like it does not know where it needs to be (shifting when it shouldn't)...

3. It has recently started to "pulse" up a hill, in between 80-100km/hour, the rpms seem to get stuck at 3000 - you can see the rpms pulsing, and also feel the truck doing it.

Thanks again for any help!

Amy

amy · #2 09-01-2010, 06:35 PM

If anyone could help me it would be appreciated. This is getting worse, and is now shifting strangely back and forth even on the flat. It is almost like it goes to shift up, so you see the rpm gauge drop, but then it catches again back in the gear it was originally in. So you can feel a jerk and watch the rpm jump down and up very quickly..... Any suggestions?

sgtsandman · #3 09-02-2010, 06:47 AM

Try changing the transmission fluid first. It might take more than one change to get all the crap out (I'm betting the fluid has never been changed). Drain and fill it. Drive it some to go through all the gears and repeat two more times. If the tranny has a filter, it would be a good idea to change that too. With any luck, everything will go back to normal.

After that, make sure the fluid and filter get changed every 30,000 miles.

Snake29 · #4 09-02-2010, 08:45 AM

If your speedometer is acting strange when it does this, it could be the speed sensor. Something like that happened to a friends B 2500. We thought the tranny was shot, but $29 at auto zone and it was working like new.

ranger5572 · #5 09-02-2010, 09:15 AM

Thought you may be getting parkinsons until I realized you had an automatic.
It does seem a bit like the tranny is going out. Id check the speed sensor like snake said first though. Also check the fuses. You never know what a blown fuse can do to cause trouble like this. Check all vacuum lines and electrical sensors; MAF, throttle position sensor (controls a plunger valve inside it) up by the throttle body, O2, etc to ensure they're plugged in tight, dry and not frayed anywhere. Check engine light on?

amy · #6 09-03-2010, 06:57 AM

Thanks for all the replies - yes - the check engine light goes on and off at random... but is on more than off.

Interesting mention about the speedometer - I notice that when I drive through a speed trap - the speed the sign shows different that what my speedometer shows. My speedometer can be showing 90km/hr and the speed trap sign will show like 66km/hr.... strange!

I'll do my best to check into all of the things above and will keep you posted! I'm not a car chick by any means - so will have to get some help... Thanks again!

amy · #7 09-18-2010, 07:35 AM

Ok - here's the latest...

I took my truck back to the place where I bought it and they have had it for over a week. Apparently had their tranny guy take it all apart, fix it and so on. So it was installed back into my truck yesterday and I picked it up. On my way home (a 2hr drive on highway), I noticed that my overdrive does not work. I can shift back and forth from D to OD and nothing happens - no 4th gear.

I immediately took the truck back to the shop and went for a drive with one of the guys there. Sure enough he agreed - no OD. So we drove to the Tranny Guy's shop and I went for a drive with him. He swears that he replaced pretty much everything in there, so does not feel it is a problem inside the transmission. He said that someone had previously rebuilt my tranny, installing incorrect clutches which were too thin, there was also a broken seal and he said everything was pretty much toast. He stands by his work, and felt that there was must be a piece of crud stuck somewhere, which was causing the overdrive not to work. He suggested that I dump this gunk in there, and it would flush it out. He said "give it 30km of highway driving and it should be fine".... Well, I drove home, almost 200km and I still have no overdrive. If it does not miraculously appear today when I go out, I will be heading back on monday to drop it back off.

I guess what I'm asking is - could a piece of gunk cause my OD not to work? I fear that because I'm not a man and I know nothing about trannies or engines or anything for that matter, I could easily get lied to... or misled to believe all is well, when all is not well.

Thanks for any info you can share.

Amy

ranger5572 · #8 09-18-2010, 07:53 AM

Auto trannys work with hydraulics, valves and planetary gears and stuff (way complicated). I guess its possible for something to be stuck somewhere causing a valve not to open or close all the way so that OD will work (not a tranny dude so this is a guess)...my guess is that its a nut, washer, metal shard or something. Look at it this way: If theres something in there that needs to be flushed out, if it gets flushed from where it is it's still gonna be somewhere. And chances are it won't end up in the filter. I think he should take it back apart and start poking around to find what's causing the problem. He's being lazy.