I've been a lurker here for a while and have found the advise here to be invaluable in working on my 95 Ranger 2WD 3.0L. I've been able to troubleshoot my cruise control, interval wiper problems, and replace the rusted oil pan thanks to your advise. I haven't been able to find what looks like my transmission problem though. Sorry for the long post, but I'll try to be complete in what I know. The symptoms are as follows:

• Problems just came up recently.
• The first time I accelerate after shifting from park or reverse, I get either a) a shudder like something is slipping or b) won't shift out of first gear unless I really wind it out or shift into second.
• I've been able to eliminate either symptom by shifting to first after after park/reverse then to D/OD. I can do this while sitting still even.
• Shifts and accelerates fine after that until I put it in reverse or park.
• Might be shifting kind of hard on the 2-3 shift, or I might just be overly sensitive.
• No OBD-II code other than an EGR code that's been there since I bought the truck.
• Truck has 170K miles, but has generally been well cared for.
• Speedo & cruise are working fine, so I don't suspect the VSS.

Based on some posts here, I pulled the pan and valve body tonight hoping to find a bad VB gasket. I only got the gasket from the separator plate to the trans housing, not between the separator plate and the VB, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to put it back together to see if this makes a difference but I didn't see any obvious damage.

The pan as pretty clean inside (in fact it was much worse outside than inside. Some minor black sludge, but I've seen much worse on a properly functioning C4. It Looks like the filter was changed at some point as the gasket was cork--I'd expected to see rubber if it was an OEM gasket, but that's just a guess. Fluid was slightly brown, still pretty red, overall not bad and no strong burned odor. The only think that slightly concerns me is that the gear selector valve seems to stick if I pull it all the way out then start pushing it back in. It sticks at the first "disc" that needs to go back in until I wiggle it slightly. Then again, I'd guess that if this was a real problem, something would probably be broke or bent trying to push it in. I'm also not sure how that relates to the selected gear or if it normally even comes that far out in operation.

Thanks in advance for any advise you can give me.

 

Well, putting in the new VB gaskets didn't make a difference. Thought about what was happening a little more and adjusted the shift cable by about 5 notches--problem appears to be solved based on a test drive. I'm thinking it wasn't quite getting from neutral to drive, causing problems.

 

An old thread though, but how has it being after these years? Is the truck OK now?

 

Do you think he still has the truck over 14 years later? He hasn't posted here since this thread was active back in 2006.