I originally thought that, but the truck is so new, and has been taken care of so well that I really don't see how the grounds could already be bad. I've checked all the points to ground, and I've cleaned every connector I can under and above the truck. As for the shutdown it gave me, to be honest, I was at a stoplight, and watching the light, so the truck may have had an idle surge that I wasn't paying attention to and missed. Usually when it would die before, the idle would surge up and down, and then would die. It may have done it this time too, I just didn't catch it.

 

Alright guys, there's nothing I hate more than a lack of updates.

It ended up being a broken TCC bracket and missing TCC hold down bolt.

What was happening was when the truck was cold, the computer was not commanding lockup, as it is programmed not to command lockup until the transmission warms up. Once the transmission warms up, the computer commands Torque Converter lockup when necessary. However, since my TCC solenoid was floating loosely out of it's bore, it was not able to properly actuate the TC lockup, therefore the TC was staying locked up most of the time. This is what was causing my low rpms and surging idle. It also was affecting my acceleration from stops. I have temporarily pushed the TCC solenoid back into it's bore for now, but since this is my DD and I use the truck daily, I had to button it back up. I will be ordering a new updated TCC/EPC/SS bracket from Ford, and should have the truck fixed by this weekend.

As you can see in the picture below, the red circle in the upper left hand corner shows the lack of the TCC solenoid retaining bolt. The other red circle shows the broken tab for the TCC solenoid. The good news is that the updated bracket is only $12.

 

Good find & feedback. Did you find the missing bolt in the pan????

 

Sorry for the late reply. No, the bolt was nowhere to be found, and there were no signs of any thread damage. This was a case of the bolt simply not being reinstalled by whoever worked on this truck before I bought it. I already had the pan off once to change the filter and fluid before my problems got worse, however I neglected to look over anything. Had I looked it over and found that bolt missing, I would have never had an issue. But I wasn't really expecting to find a bolt missing. Anyways, two weeks after I bought the truck, I started battling an occasional O/D Off light with code P0741, TCC Circuit Performance or Stuck Off. Trans shop quoted me $500 for a new TCC solenoid. I told them no thanks and left. I knew it wasn't the solenoid because it was intermittent. Failed Solenoids don't usually pick and choose when they want to give fits, nor do they only give you issues when the truck shakes or hits a bump. The tires on the truck were the original ones since the truck only had 42,000 miles on it, so they had a few bad spots in them. After I replaced them with new tires, the O/D Off light issues significantly reduced to maybe once a month when I'd hit a nice bump in the road. So, after seeing the cause of my hesitation/rough idle/surging condition, I feel assured that this was also the cause of my O/D Off light as well.

Anyways, I picked up the new bracket from Ford last Friday, however I still need to find a replacement bolt. Been to three junkyards so far, and none of them have a Ranger or Explorer with the valve body still in the transmission. Once I find the bolt, I will then be able to fix it for good. But for now, it's running absolutely perfect, and I can finally enjoy my truck again, something I haven't been able to do in a long time.

 

I would be inclined to do a Sea Foam treatment (or similar product) after all the engine went through. With the engine running all over the place some carbon may have built up. I'm only recommending Sea Foam because every one I know that does an engine treatment uses it. I used it on my 99 Ranger and to my surprise it never even smoked. My brother used it on his van (an older Chevy I believe) and he said there was a lot of white smoke and it stopped the engine knock. The knock was the reason for the treatment. Anyway, it's inexpensive and it may make a noticeable difference in performance. Let us know how much white smoke, if any, you get from the treatment and/or performance change (if you decide to do one).

 

Actually, the engine performance has increased 10 fold just by pushing the solenoid back in. My IAC doesn't carbon up quickly at all, so I doubt anything will come of it anyway. I may consider it when the truck hits 70,000.

 

Finally found the replacement bolt on Saturday, and the truck was permanently fixed today.

First off, EVERY single issue described before, and every single issue I've ever had with this truck is now gone. As a recap, this all started two weeks after I bought the truck in September 2010 with an intermittent O/D Off light and P0741 code. The only symptom was high rpm change when shifting into reverse or drive, and a surging idle in reverse. Learned how to change my driving habits, and that helped me keep the O/D Off light off. Anyways, in April 2011, I had to go through a small mud hole, and a pretty washed out limerock road. Well, I ended up developing a surging idle in drive as well, severe hesitation upon acceleration, dropping out of gear (or rough O/D engagement) at highway speeds, and low rpms in gear at about 600. After this repair, the truck now idles at 850, the rpm change when going into drive or reverse is only about 50 rpms, there is no more surging in idle in reverse, or at stops, and there is no more hesitation.

Now for the final pics:


I grabbed two bolts at the junkyard just to be safe, but none of the other bolts were missing, so I didn't need the other one.





New bracket on top, old one on bottom. You can see where the TCC tab is clearly broken off.





New bracket and TCC solenoid/valve body retaining bolt installed.

 

Good find, fix, feedback & to hear all is now well.

 

Thanks, and thanks for all the suggestions and help when I was trying to diagnose this!