Karl885
New Member
- Joined
- April 5, 2008
- Messages
- 1
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- City, State
- Text messaging capital of the world (detroit area MI)
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 97 Ranger XLT
Hi all,
New here and I've picked up some great info so far. I have a couple of questions though stemming from a particular issue that I'm having with my ranger and would like some advice/help if anyone has any ideas.
The truck is a 97, 2.3 L auto trans (I'm guessing the 4R55? but I'm not sure) standard cab, long bed, 150,000 miles - the last 40 thousand of which have been by me. no mods to the engine or anything. The problem I'm having is that when cold, the truck "clunks" pretty hard into reverse. Hard enough to where it stalls itself out and then the o/d light starts flashing (flashing stops upon restarting the truck) the truck has no problems shifting in the forward gears when cold or hot, and after warming up it'll go into reverse pretty smoothly (still a slight noise, but nearly normal) It also seems like pushing the brake when cold smoothes out the shift into reverse. Its got to the point now where there is also a long pause before it even clunks into reverse-sometimes requireing a "blip" of the gas pedal.
I guess my first question is does anyone have an idea on what the particular cause of the problem is? Are there any inexpensive solutions ?(I'm not holding my breadth on that one ) Is it something thats worth fixing or not? I'd like to keep the truck, as I'll be graduating college next spring and I'll need it to move (as it is, the truck has moved me from michigan to florida and back once already) But being a college student, i'm not exactly rolling in money. I've pulled the engine and trans from a 70's muscle car (a plymouth), so I wouldnt necessarily be afraid to drop the trans on the truck myself, but it does make a me a bit nervous. Does anyone have any advice/info?
as an aside, I took it to the place that my dads been going too since the 80's, (they dont do transmissions though) I was going to have them change the fluid but their recommendation was that changing the fluid might do more harm then good with the current state its in. Should I go ahead and change fluid/filter anyway? or is does it sound like I'm going to be replacing or rebuilding the trans? I have towed with it twice but I didnt put it in OD and I was gentle (despite being 23, I have a CDL and drove a tractor/trailer for over a year) Also even though the OD light goes off after restarting, would running a code check on it from somewhere like autozone reveal pick it up or no?
Sincere thanks to any and all replies-I've got another vehicle thats taken over as my daily driver, but I love my ranger as this is the first non-routine problem I've had with it in the 3 years I've owned it. (plus my current daily driver is a saturn sedan and no way suited toward a possible move in a year)
Karl
New here and I've picked up some great info so far. I have a couple of questions though stemming from a particular issue that I'm having with my ranger and would like some advice/help if anyone has any ideas.
The truck is a 97, 2.3 L auto trans (I'm guessing the 4R55? but I'm not sure) standard cab, long bed, 150,000 miles - the last 40 thousand of which have been by me. no mods to the engine or anything. The problem I'm having is that when cold, the truck "clunks" pretty hard into reverse. Hard enough to where it stalls itself out and then the o/d light starts flashing (flashing stops upon restarting the truck) the truck has no problems shifting in the forward gears when cold or hot, and after warming up it'll go into reverse pretty smoothly (still a slight noise, but nearly normal) It also seems like pushing the brake when cold smoothes out the shift into reverse. Its got to the point now where there is also a long pause before it even clunks into reverse-sometimes requireing a "blip" of the gas pedal.
I guess my first question is does anyone have an idea on what the particular cause of the problem is? Are there any inexpensive solutions ?(I'm not holding my breadth on that one ) Is it something thats worth fixing or not? I'd like to keep the truck, as I'll be graduating college next spring and I'll need it to move (as it is, the truck has moved me from michigan to florida and back once already) But being a college student, i'm not exactly rolling in money. I've pulled the engine and trans from a 70's muscle car (a plymouth), so I wouldnt necessarily be afraid to drop the trans on the truck myself, but it does make a me a bit nervous. Does anyone have any advice/info?
as an aside, I took it to the place that my dads been going too since the 80's, (they dont do transmissions though) I was going to have them change the fluid but their recommendation was that changing the fluid might do more harm then good with the current state its in. Should I go ahead and change fluid/filter anyway? or is does it sound like I'm going to be replacing or rebuilding the trans? I have towed with it twice but I didnt put it in OD and I was gentle (despite being 23, I have a CDL and drove a tractor/trailer for over a year) Also even though the OD light goes off after restarting, would running a code check on it from somewhere like autozone reveal pick it up or no?
Sincere thanks to any and all replies-I've got another vehicle thats taken over as my daily driver, but I love my ranger as this is the first non-routine problem I've had with it in the 3 years I've owned it. (plus my current daily driver is a saturn sedan and no way suited toward a possible move in a year)
Karl
