4r70w reverse and slight engagement to second gear only

[oddball101]

Hello all, it has been a while since I have posted here. (I imagine I will be checking this site out more frequently now though considering I just completed my '00 AWD 5.0 swap into my '01 extended cab 3.0 ranger. I am hoping that I can get some insight form the tranny guru's, but from what I am seeing, it doesn't look like I have much hope.

So, as stated above, I just recently swapped the powertrain from the expo to the ranger. I drove the donor down from NC and she drove just fine then. I did some tuning up and then gutted her after making sure everything was in proper working order. Now though, I am having two issues.

1. the vacuum lines under the upper plenum
2. (the big one) the tranny goes in reverse.. only reverse now after the swap and what feels like half of second gear if that makes any sense..

I drove it the day before I pulled the tranny motor combo and it was fine. I finally get all the wiring done and when I went for the maiden voyage, she didn't want to move forward. I eventually got her into what felt like second gear but it seemed to only partially engage after I added more MerconV. It has been difficult for me to read the little dipstick honeycomb gauge because I cannot tell if it is just getting residue from the tube itself or registering the actual amount of tranny fluid.

It does seem full now after running more checks. Since she won't move but in reverse, I let her idle for about 10-15 minutes while I slowly go through the gear selector PRND21 and then back again. I can feel in engage reverse like a champ, but the forward gears not so much. I was able to get her going enough to go a quarter mile up the road and back to get the exhaust taken care of, but it was a very slow trek, while someone was following me.

So now, I've just added a bunch more MerconV until it was obvious that it was full. I'll have to get some out now I imagine, but aside from that, I have done the idle for multiple periods of 15 minute increments while slowly going through the gears and nothing has changed..

-Still only goes in reverse completely
-Still slightly tries to engage what feels like second gear

Is this where I am told that I have to fork out serious cash for another tranny or a rebuild now?

Any insight to this would be much appreciated. This has me really bummed.

 

[JK080]

If there is no power to the transmission you will have reverse and 2nd gear, it the same condition as if it is unplugged, both shift solenoids off causes 2nd gear.

Check the data stream with a good scanner for anything out of place with sensor info and computer commands. Check the line pressure on the transmission, that can help pinpoint pressure problems.

 

[oddball101]

Thank you very much for your reply, it was informative. After adding 4 more quarts to the tranny, I also finally started seeing the fluid level being retained by the honeycomb on the dipstick. So sure enough she was running low. Unfortunately though, nothing changed as I'd hoped after slowly cycling through the gears.

I did in fact try to use some scan tools last night but I learned that the ELM327 Mini's are notorious for not being able to read fords. I had two of them on hand that stated the obd2 port wasn't communicating with the PCM. I then had a friend come over with his $400 handheld scanner, and it said the same thing.

Do you think it is possible that the wiring involved with the swap (VSS, ABS, PATS) may have affected communication between the OBDII port and the PCM?