Good morning folks,

I have a '96 Windstar with about 1100 miles left on the extended warranty and I need some help. Last weekend we were on the interstate the the van seemed to have dropped out of gear into second briefly and then bounced back in. 30 miles later it dropped again and would not go back into gear (drive/overdrive). We drove through town trying to find a dealership to drop it off at (Sunday, of course and and hour away from home). By the time we found one, the van began to gradually work itself out was began to shift into second and then eventually all the gears worked fine. My mother in law came to pick us up and I followed her the remaining hour and half to her home without incident (didn't want to leave it in a strange town with no POC). I took it to the Ford garage on Monday and the ran a battery of tests with now results and drove it the remainder of the week with no further incidents. Last night I went to my sons baseball game and it started again (only driven for ten miles so far for the day. I had first and second and it eventually worked itself out again within the five miles. There are no warning lights, instrument flickers, or any other indicators prior to this happening. The van has 78,000; tranny serviced at 56,000, fluid levels are fine, fluid color is the proper color. I have another appointment on monday, but I am afraid I will get the same results. We will be travelling quite a bit this summer and I don't like the idea of going 75 mph with the family of five and having this van drop into first. I would appreciate if anyone could help me troubleshoot this problem. Thank you in advance,

Mike

 

Thanks for the info. The earliest appointment I could get was this morning. It started to act up again this weekend, but once I took it to the shop it corrected itself once again, of course. I took it into a second garage this morning. I did get a repair manual and looked over some of the components. I had to go on a 5 hour round trip with the family, so I decided to try and troubleshoot a little. I found a couple of the connectors that had corrosion on some of the contact pins. I cleaned them up with WD40, Q-tips, and toothpicks (probably not the best), but I made the five hour trip without incident yesterday. Fingers are crossed. I have an opportunity to by another extended plan for 2 more years or 24,000. At this point would any of you recommend doing so? Thanks again for your input.

Mike