The other day I was in traffic bumper to bumper and as I would begin to accelerate I would have to come off the gas before I shifted to first. The truck would then very violently shift. Over and over, similar but unrelated yesterday while I was driving down the highway at 60 miles an hour not accelerating or slowing, the truck seemed like it was shifting gears or maybe it just went out of gear(I started slowing down even though my foot was on the accelerator) then real abruptly the car rocked and the car was back to normal. Its and auto but I don't know which one I have. My truck is a '93 with the 5.8L. I appreciate any help.......

 

man that sounds like when my tranny went out..about 3 days later....
was going down highway..and it kept going /coming out of OD..and it was shifting like it was low on fluid....hope that is not your problem...i would pull pan and change filter aleast...

 

If you have an OD button on the dash or the shifter then it's an E4OD tranny. If that's the case it might be the solenoids in the valve body, they have a habit of crapping out if they get goobered up w/ nappy fluid. Try pulling the codes and see if any are tranny related, it should tell you if you have a solenoid prob, or not, just an idea though. Good luck

Oh yea, and do what drbonestou said!

 

I myself was wondering about overdrive but their is no consistency and that wouldn't explain the low speed shifts. I haven't yet been in traffic in my car and I was wondering if this is just the way this car does things. The way it shifts when I am really accelerating I am beginning to wonder if the previous owner put a high stall torque converter in. If there were trouble codes to be found in the computer would there be a light? The weird shifting out of overdrive has not come up yet again but the low speed acceleration happened again tonight and to stop it from continuing to happen I put the gear selector into 2nd until I was able to go more open throttle and that completely got rid of the problems.... What characteristics would/could I look for to know whether or not I have a High Stall Converter???

 

Ok I'm thinking of two things:

1. You might need a computer reset, these things sometimes will go into weird modes if they have too much junk in their head.

2. Possiblily a Shift selector switch. I had some wierd things happen to my truck similar to what you are describing. Apparently these things go out pretty often on original trannys. It's about a 120.00 dollar bill from the dealer to get it and replace it. Pretty easy to replace too, just splice in the wires tighten up some bolts and you are done.

 

sonds like what mine does, when cold it will sometimes go into N while driving. it hasn't realy died on my but mabey twice....I have changed the fluid a few times as well as the filter and it stops for a while and then comes back....I just bought a Motercraft filter for it hopeing it will help... I am concidering a flush @ Ford ~$160. if not tranny rebuild.