Trying to fix my friend's 02 2WD Automatic Ranger (97k miles) which appears to have "burned up" the fluid. Won't engage in any direction except momentarily after playing with the revs. Fluid was low and upon dropping the transmission pan, I drained only about 1/2 qt of fluid which was dark, thick, full of black soot, and smelled very burnt. Didn't have any metal shavings or chunks however.

Is it worth dropping, draining the torque converter, reinstalling and reservicing to test or is something in this tranny already cooked? I don't want to throw all new fluid (at $5/qt) and effort only to have to drain it back out and then change the tranny.

Thoughts?

I drove my 03 auto Ranger from Denver to Vegas and back when it had 99000 miles on it. On the drive back I noticed hard shifts just outside the CO state line. When I got to the mountains the O/D off light began to flash and it went into limp mode. I had to pull over in Shorthorn to let the tranny cool. When I checked the fluid it was low, brown and had the dreaded burnt smell. I added a quart of Merc V to get it back to the correct level and babied it home (Brighton). Once home, I dropped the pan changed the fluid and filter, drove it for about 1000 miles then changed the fluid with Mobile 1 Synthetic ATF and the filter again. The tranny works like it is brand new smooth crisp shifts. I have 110000 miles on the truck now.

I would at least drop the pan and change the fluid and filter, only 4.5 quarts if you leave the torque converter alone. $45 is much better than $3500 for a rebuild. I wouldn't worry about trying to drain the torque converter right now. First see if the fluid and filter change works.

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(SOLD) 2003 Ranger 4.0L V6 FX4
2001 F150 Supercrew Triton V8 (DD)
2008 Fusion 3.0L SEL V6 (my baby)
1992 Taurus SHO MTX (my toy-almost Supercharged)
2004 Nissan Murano SL AWD (Wife's car)

That's for the feedback! I ended up taking the conservative route and swapped the tranny with a $600 salvage which is running great now. The hardest part of this was getting the torque converter to line up so I could install all 4 bolts through the service plate hole. I ended up installing the starter and pulling all the plugs to eliminate the compression so it was just a matter of time until the torque converter ended up in the right place. I couldn't manually turn the crank after installing the new tranny so this is what I was left with. (could have been the below freezing temps I was working in)

this would be the clutches in your transmission goin out and the fibers from the clutch in the tranny fluid. its usually time for a rebuild when this happens.

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90 ranger 2wd
2.9L stock 5 speed