So what can you fellers tell me about this 1994 ranger 4x4 with a 4.0 ? When i first hop in i let it warm up for maybe a minute, throw it in drive and go, most times it just goes but sometimes it acts like it's in neutral.I better explain better. so say i'm parked outback buy my shop, i put it in reverse back up drop it in drive and go, if i were to keep it above 11-1200 rpm and ride the brake everything is cool at the end of my drive [ maybe a 1000 feet ] i jump on the hiway run to work with no problem, but lets say i pause for traffic and take my foot off the gas, when i try to go it acts like i'm in neutral. so what i do vary's sometimes i'll put it in R. back up a little drop it in drive and off we go other times i just put it N. then back in drive an off we go. It don't happen often and the only common denominator is that it has sat at work or home for a few hours. this truck came to me as a down payment on a rig i was sellin, the kid that owned it don't know diddly and the rig showed that. I have a new trany. filter and oil coming but whats in there wasn't to terribly low and don't smell burnt just old.so i'm wondering if it might be that lock-up torque converter, I aint much of an automatic trans. guy don't like em don't own em I just want this one to work properly cause i have it traded a 94 sho taurus and 2 pickups. other than the problem i mentioned this trans, works good. i just don't want to off it to somebody knowin that they're gonna have unresolved issues that i should have addressed, Thanks fellers for any ideas, the nearest trans. shop is 80 miles away and if i can fix it whoo who if not looks like i'm headed for town.

 

Given the vintage, unknown scheduled service history of this puppy & the fluid being "a little low", we don't know what that means, but it could cause fluid aeration & mucked up shifting. So, I agree with the pan drop, filter & fluid change to begin with. With the pan drop you can get a good idea how things look inside for varnish, gum & sludge that might be mucking things up, unseen in the valve body. It doesn't take much to cause problems.

SO, after the pan drop & refill, I'd seriously consider continuing on & perform a Full tranny fluid pump-out as described below, so to get as much old fluid out & new fluid into the valve body, torque converter, cooler & lines as possible & drive it some to let the new fluids detergents begin to Slowly tidy things up in unseen spots inside the valve body. The key is Not to rush things & break too much loose too quickly & have those deposits muck something important up, Any deposits in there likely came about slowly over time, so should be cleaned up & filtered out the same way, Slowly, so as not to cause additional problems.
Right now I'd not add any other detergents like Seafoam Trans Tune, or other tranny fixes in a bottle, because you don't have an idea of the state of things inside right now, so adding too heavy a load of cleaner up detergents, more concentrated than the new fluids ad pack, could cause more mischief.

Seeing as how the past maintenance history is unknown, I'd probably seriously consider adding a in-line filter like a Magnefine, https://www.magnefinefilters.com/main.sc, in the tranny return line, to help filter out any debris the new fluid detergents slowly dissolves.

Have a read on this in the Tech Info thread about how I perform full tranny fluid pump-outs on my vehicles. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...-pump-out.html

Some beginning thoughts for consideration, let us knw how it goes.

 

thank you for your reply pawpaw, sounds like good advice, and after reading your post on flushing all the old fluid out that is exactly what i'm going to do come sunday afternoon. I'll let you know how it turns out

 

Well how is the tranny doing, 511 curious minds would like to know???

 

Well the feller I traded it to loves it and says the trans. is doing great and has not had any trouble. I turn 1 maybe 2 rigs a month so keeping happy customers is paramount to me, at the moment I'm working on an 06 F-250 s.d. with the 6.0 smoked 5R110. Again thank you for your sound advice, I think I could have flushed that trans. in my sleep after reading your tutorial, everything was exactly as you said. Brian W.

 

Ok good feedback & to hear the tranny seems to have responded well to a full fluid flush.