I have done a fluid and filter.
The truck shifts smooth, but when under load or aggressive take off it "roars". With little to no knowledge of trannys, it seems like the power from the engine is not converted to the trans, which kind of seems like the torque converter? Please any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

I have also done the disconnect of the battery in hopes of a miracle.

 

Outside chance it could be the MAF?

 

is the check engine light on, or does it flash when it happpens? has your O/D light ever flashed or stayed on?

 

No check engine lights, no codes on OBD scanner. Going to try MAF cleaning tomorrow. I'm starting to lose my grip on reality with this thing.

 

Glad that your 1,000 post was in my favor! Congrats on the acheivement!

 

How many miles were on it when you changed the fluid?

 

130.xxx

 

Well thats why, all the metal particles that were keeping your gears in sync got flushed out causing it to start messing it up. If you never flush it past 75k you just leave it alone.

 

Second time it's been done. I baby this truck. The more time I spend banging my head against the radiator, the more I'm thinking the MAF. I know the the MAF and tranny are daylight and dark difference, but I'm going to start small and then set it on fire.

 

Like I said earlier, it sounds like it sucking in too much air or something. I know I posted under the drivetrain, but I'm starting to lean away from that, due to the tranny shifts fine. I"m starting to chase ghosts.

 

thats mostly true for older vehicles, not so much with our trucks. if the trans is shifting fine i would suspect something else, but we need a better description of what kind of noise its making

 

Best way for me to describe the noise is that when I crank the truck it idles very loud (roar). When I drive under normal conditions, the sound is there but not really noticeable. Under a hard load, such as hard acceleration or at highway speed (shifting into OD) it sounds horrible. The "roar" sounds to me, and my lack of diagnostic skills, like there is too much air being sucked into the intake. I first thought of the tranny/torrque converter because there seems like a lack of power during the hard acceleration/OD shifting. Again, the tranny shifts smooth, but long.
Sorry if this has gone from one thing to another, but the more I drive/listen to it the more I'm inclined to think differently. Thanks for all your help!

 

On vehicles I've had where the torque converter failed, there was a big disconnect between engine speed and vehcile speed, like a slipping clutch.

So when you get your loud roar, do the RPMs jump up higher than you'd expect? There will be some slip in an auto tranny, but you'd notice if it was bad.

 

No jump in RPM's. I just got the MAF cleaned and it seemed to run better. I got back from the test drive and disconnected the battery. Jumped on here for any updates, and I'm about to go back and try again.
Man, thanks for all the input. Like I said in my intro. I've left one forum to join this one, and I must say I'm impressed already. Tons of help here, none over there. I'll give back to the forum as I can, you all have been a great help so far!

 

Oh I missed the part about it shifting fine. When I heard my roar it raised the RPMs to like 4000 and then clunked into gear, not bueno at all. Glad you got it figured out!

 

Ok boys and girls....
Here's an update on the "ghost".
I started out thinking my tranny was about to puke it's guts out so I started with the obvious, a fluid and filter change.
With no luck after that I changed the oil, again no luck.
Cleaned the throttle body, same result.
While doing some research I came across an article talking about the MAF causing many of the same problems I had, so what the hey. I thought I'd give it a try.
Well, I cleaned the MAF and went for a test drive, my truck drove better but the loud obnoxious "roar" was still there. I then disconnected the battery for about 15 minutes, and so far so good. Shifting is better, meaning no lag in shifts. No longer "loss in power" between shifts.
We'll see how this goes, if in the end it doesn't work out then I have a Ranger for sale!
Still any input would be helpful, keep it coming this seems to be too easy a fix.

 

Way to go! Here's a trick so you don't have to wait 15 min for your computer to reset, unplug the negative battery cable and then turn the headlights on for 30 seconds and it will reset the computer just like waiting 15 min will and its a heck of a lot faster.

 

I saw 01_ranger_4x4 post something about the check engine light flashing on during a hard acceleration. My brother drove my truck and said this happened to him. Since then he has had a tune up done and said it hasn't done it since, but now it seems to take a while to get into one gear, then jump into the next really quickly. He said he's going to get the transmission flushed, is there anything else that could have caused this that we don't know about? Sorry, a little off topic. But joldtown's problem sounded similar to mine.

 

a flashing CEL usually means the trucks detecting a misfire in the engine. if its sever enough it will flash and than stay on, otherwise it will flash and then go off

 

Ah, thanks, so the new plugs and wires should have taken care of that. He also got a new fuel filter put on. Any idea why the tranny would be practically skipping a gear tho? He described it like it would shift fine while accelerating, but the rpms would go really high from 3rd to 4th, then shift almost immediately from 4th to 5th. It is an automatic, just so there's no confusion.

 

As I was banging my head on the radiator again today, guess what I noticed? A crack in one of the vacuum lines. OF ALL THINGS! I know this was a bad way to come into R-F, but I did say I have limited diagnostic skills. I've looked at the engine for about a week now, and I feel like a complete idiot.
All I can say is that in the morning I'll have my baby back in good repair with ALL the necessary minor up keep done. Damn, I feel stupid and glad at the same time.
Thanks guys and gals for all the help, I'll pass on what I learn from you all to the next batch of newbs so that you all can take a rest from stupid stuff like this.

 

PS. Atleast I fixed my own problem, and didn't cop out at the dealership. There may be hope yet.