Mr RonD seems to have a lot of good info so I'll hopefully awaken the master ;-)

My ranger has a multitude of problems. these are the main concerns

1) - it's hard starting - really hard. Seems better if I let it sit with key on for a bit but then has better luck after first try to shift to N and try again. It's eating starters at this point as it also dies when I hit bumps at random so I shift to N while rolling and restart. Seems similar to my Chevy when the fuel pressure regulator went out but that one was much easier to diagnose as it wasn't in the tank. My mechanic has the truck now so he's going to check that

2) Now onto the most annoying potential trans issues which is why I write here:

A) - I have no OD - no light in the dash, button does nothing - been like that since I bought it so just have lived with it as it's my beater truck
B) - recently lost reverse. - this is a major problem. Well I didn't exactly lose reverse... but if I try to reverse the truck dies or mildly bucks a bit and dies. It is hit and miss but if I do get it to reverse and give it much of any load the engine dies, once it dies I'm back to hoping it starts...
------ I also noticed that if the truck is in park and gets pushed forward it will die - I noticed this when I was having pallets loaded into the bed while it was running in P. When they would slide the pallet in bit by pushing it, the truck would die every time. makes me think some sensor is causing my dying and also the dying in reverse
------- I had a trans leak fixed recently, the mechanic replaced the range sensor at the same time. He drained the tranny to fix the leak and also disconnected the battery. When I got it back it was reversing good so at first I thought it was solved by the range sensor. Bit by bit it started having the reverse issues with less and less load until now its back to virtually never reversing unless I throw it in reverse after coasting backwards down a slope and then it will only reverse at idle speed. If it gets any type of load it dies. Maybe the cycling of the fluid did something to fix it for a short while or the resetting of the computer...???
------- I just now noticed a post where the traction control was an issue - it does give me a traction light occasionally, never thought of that. I'll hit the button to turn it off and see if it does anything when I get the truck back later today with yet another new starter installed

 

oh, also the trans doesn't always shift well. It will wind way up before shifting with much throttle. I need to let off the gas a bit so it will up-shift sometimes or it will downshift with a thud sometimes

 

anyone ;-)

 

Possible broken motor mount and engine is rocking enough to pull on a wire and temporarily unplugging something.

 

hmmn, interesting!!!

 

Still having the problem. I just stopped using reverse for the most part but over time it slowly started to be more able to reverse, till I got too heavy footed in reverse, which pissed it off and it’s back to not liking reverse and dying with any load or pushing it from the rear when in park. This cycle has played out a couple times since the original post. Someone said something about a stuck floating solenoid in the trans or something?