o/d light flashing, hard shift 1st to 2nd

anthony420 · #1 12-18-2012, 12:43 PM

I have a 98 ford ranger, v6 4liter. Runs great, just replaced the engine. However, i am noticing a problem after i get over 50 miles an hour, my od light starts flashing, then i notice a hard shift from 2nd-1st and 1st to 2nd. If i turn my truck off, and then back on, the flashing is gone and my truck shifts normally. After i get back up to speed , around 50 mph, light starts flashing again and shifting symptoms re appear. It drives normal thought out all other gears, no issues on highways, no excessive rpm's, noises ect.... pushing the od button acts normal, rpm goes up wen i disconnect over drive and when i re engage over drive, rpm goes back down. Any ideals on this issue??

reconjb · #2 12-18-2012, 01:14 PM

The flashing o/d light is like a check engine for the transmission when it starts flashing it puts the trans into a kinda of limp mode which is causing your hard shifts and it resets every time the vehicle is shutoff

sent from my IPod using the FRF app

modelageek · #3 12-18-2012, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anthony420

I have a 98 ford ranger, v6 4liter. Runs great, just replaced the engine. However, i am noticing a problem after i get over 50 miles an hour, my od light starts flashing, then i notice a hard shift from 2nd-1st and 1st to 2nd. If i turn my truck off, and then back on, the flashing is gone and my truck shifts normally. After i get back up to speed , around 50 mph, light starts flashing again and shifting symptoms re appear. It drives normal thought out all other gears, no issues on highways, no excessive rpm's, noises ect.... pushing the od button acts normal, rpm goes up wen i disconnect over drive and when i re engage over drive, rpm goes back down. Any ideals on this issue??

Is your ABS acting up? Is your speedo working?

1999, Reg Cab, 2.5, 5 speed, 145k. (Sent from my DROID BIONIC using FRF App)

anthony420 · #4 12-18-2012, 03:51 PM

The only thing acting up when o/d light flashes is hard shift from 1st-2nd, and back down, everything else seems to run normal, including highway driving. Have not noticed anything from the abs, seems to stop fine and release fine. Not sure what you mean speedo, speedometer works fine , have not tired speed control/cruise control but will on my way home

wvcat · #5 12-18-2012, 06:33 PM

Your truck is not shifting into overdrive. That's why it only happens around 50 mph. Usually it's one of 3 things causing it. 1st the overdrive band needs adjusted. 2nd the overdrive shift coil is bad. Or the valve body separator plate is blown out. Try driving aboud 45 and letting up on the gas and watch for it to shift(rpm drop). If it does its probably not the solinoid.

anthony420 · #6 12-18-2012, 07:19 PM

ok, i will try that. I know today, i was driving thru town and it started doing it, i stop at a red light , turned off engine and restarted. drove thru the rest of town with everything running perfect, no shift problems. When i got back up to speed , this time it didnt start flashing until i got to about 70. I do know that when i was driving down the highway, the light started flashing, i was running around 70 mph-3000rpm. I recall pushing the overdrive button and it jumped up to 3400 rpm. I will try this procedure on my way to work in the morning and be more exact with my findings. I dont understand when everybody talks about "limp mode", I dont seem to experience this. Everything still seems to run normal except the hard shift up and down , 1st and 2nd.

reconjb · #7 12-18-2012, 07:25 PM

all limp mode does is it increases the pressure in the transmission to attempt to get home if something broke so you are not likely to notice any difference except the shifts will be harder

anthony420 · #8 12-19-2012, 01:08 PM

update: drove the truck around town, never going over 45 mph, light never came on and truck shifted fine and ran fine. Also, drove again and this time, turned o/d off, driving thru town but going faster, 50 plus mph, light started flashing. Turned o/d off and notice rpm drop correctly, as if o/d is working properly. Light still flashed and hard shift problem 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 1st. All other shifts work smooth, ie.. barely feel tranny shifting gears at all.

wvcat · #9 12-19-2012, 07:03 PM

Did you feel 5 shifts? 1st, 2nd, 3rd, TQ Lockup, and OD.

modelageek · #10 12-20-2012, 04:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anthony420

update: drove the truck around town, never going over 45 mph, light never came on and truck shifted fine and ran fine. Also, drove again and this time, turned o/d off, driving thru town but going faster, 50 plus mph, light started flashing. Turned o/d off and notice rpm drop correctly, as if o/d is working properly. Light still flashed and hard shift problem 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 1st. All other shifts work smooth, ie.. barely feel tranny shifting gears at all.

Is your speedometer working?

1999, Reg Cab, 2.5, 5 speed, 145k. (Sent from my DROID BIONIC using FRF App)

anthony420 · #11 12-21-2012, 07:37 AM

wv cat---- I am not sure i feel 5 shifts. I did try what your first post said, took it to about 45 , eased off gas and did see rpm's kick down. When you refer to overdrive band adjustment, is this something I can do? I did not have this problem before I changed out the engine, this just started after the engine replacement. I dont remember , in general , what the rpm's should be running going down the highway, If this something that could help me figure out issue. I know when I am driving 70 mph going down the highway, I am running around 2900-3000 rpm. Does this seem right

1999 r8nger · #12 06-26-2014, 02:56 AM

I have this same problem, I haven't payed much attention as to what speed the light starts blinking but I have unplugged the sensor on the side of the transmission and cleaned it but it never helped. I just bought this truck and they told me they had the transmission replaced and I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to what I should do to help it

modelageek · #13 06-26-2014, 03:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1999 r8nger

I have this same problem, I haven't payed much attention as to what speed the light starts blinking but I have unplugged the sensor on the side of the transmission and cleaned it but it never helped. I just bought this truck and they told me they had the transmission replaced and I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to what I should do to help it

Does you speedometer work? Any other issues?

guell · #14 06-26-2014, 04:17 AM

How many miles and when was the last time the oil/filter was changed? My truck did that last year and I had a kind of band aid fix that worked fine for 7 months until it was totaled

Bob C. of Indiana · #15 06-26-2014, 05:25 AM

Anthony how long have you owned the truck and are you the one who had the new engine installed? The reason I'm asking is when I first bought my Ranger I had some confusion on the overdrive, it seemed to me the overdrive button was backasswards,push the button in and the overdrive light on,push the button again light off.Overdrive light on means your overdrive is off,overdrive light off means overdrive on. If this helps great, if you already know this it might help a future searcher.Good luck!