So the truck is a 2001 Ranger 3.0l V6 with. 5r44e Tranny 136k miles

Transmission shift is hard shifting to 2nd and reving high(5krpm) with a delayed shift to third. Gets worse as the truck warms up

fluid is candy red and smells fine

Ive been reading about the "2-3 flare" that is common but i have a few issues with it. I originally was thinking of pulling the Valve Body and changing the infamous paper gaskets on the sep plate as well as the EPC Solonoid. But I am not having any delay in reverse and the engine braking is still there. Now im not sure what is wrong.

To add to the confusion, I can put the car through the manual (1 and 2) gears and the truck shifts fine, but when in OD auto it has the previously mentioned issues. This leads me to believe that I am having pressure issues not forcing the car to shift.

Does this sound about right? I figure the worst to worst, changing the gaskets would allow me to pull the pan and inspect everything as well as changing out the fluid from the dropped pan.

Im currious to what you all think. Thanks in advance.

 

I think you need to check for codes before doing anything. Don't go to an auto parts store, their readers cannot read Ford transmission codes. Forscan is the best way to do it. You can get Forscan free at www.forscan.org. You'll also need an ELM327 adapter to plug into the OBDII port on the truck. I bought one from Amazon for less than $30.

 

You can see if you have the gasket problem by just removing the pan and looking all around the edge of the valve body with a flash light, for pieces of gasket sticking out. If you see gasket sticking out or if you find pieces in the pan, you have the problem. The symptoms vary depending on just where the gasket fails. If you don't see gasket sticking out, you likely have some other problem. I believe the gasket failure only happens at the edge of the valve body, but I could be wrong and if so would welcome a correction.

 

Did you resolve your issue? I have a similar problem with a 92 4.0, just over 90,000 miles. I'm looking for a starting point. Thanks!

 

The starting point is reading the codes. See above for how to do that.