The truck starts up and when you shift it out of park and into gear its bucks like your driving a stick shift and you dump the clutch. The truck will stall out and it does it no matter if you shift it into drive or reverse. Replaced torque converter and nothing still the same. pulled the pan and didnt find any thing their, no metal or anything. Cleaned valve body and topped off fluid and still does the same thing. Its like its a standard tranny and their is no clutch and your just throwing it in gear.
We have gotten it going a few times and when your get it going down the road its like their is nothing wrong until you come to a stop and then your stuck. I have to start it up and try to get it into gear without stalling to get it back to the yard, I'm stumped, maybe the pump is bad??? I had some work done to the engine a couple weeks before this happened, a fuel injection was replaced and the exhaust replaced.
Please help.
Thanks

 

Year and engine will help people help you. I suggest you edit your profile through the USER CONTROL PANEL ("user cp" on top left of screen) to include that information in your SIGNATURE.


Welcome aboard Charles..


I was gonna guess torque converter but??? IDK.



GB :)

 

There is a few pressure test ports on the sides of the trans, they have a pipe plug sealing them up. One is pump pressure and the other is EPC pressure.

I can get you pressure/rpm numbers to test. You will need a pressure gauge capable of reading up to 400 psi for WOT pressures. IIRC, the ports are 1/4 npt but dont hold me to that.

 

Ok I will check my pressure their, what should it be or should i just say if its high then its not the pump.,
the worst part of it all is this isnt my truck, its the old lady next door and she has had this back yard mechanic working on it and then when he is done screwing up everything i go in and fix it most of the time.cd
Now I'm only going on what he has done and she has told me, so this was my first stop, most of the time people on the web is a good start.
I was the one that found a bad fuel injector when it sounded like it was missing and no power. The guy first said it was a plugged cat, so he broke everything out in it and screwed up the hole exhaust system, that's why it has a new exhaust. Then he replaced the coil pack for cyl. that wasn't holding a load, that didnt do it so he said it was the plugs wires and finally he said it was a bad fuel pump. This is were i stepped in and did my checks and found a bad fuel injector. After i got it running right the lady said it wasnt shiftting right, i told her to have the guy check to see if he screwed up anything under the truck when he was beating on the cat, come to find out he had the hose off of the shift mod. vavle. It was fine for a week or so and then one day it did this problem, now he has replaced the torqueconverter, with a new one, (i hope) and that wasnt it. Then he said he seen a little ice in the bottem of the pan when he droped it and then he said he seen a gasket sticking out the side of the valve body. She said he cleaned the ice and removed the valve body and cleaned it and replaced the gasket, still doing the same thing. Its like you start the truck and go to put it in gear and it will buck and stall like you dumprd the clutch and stalled it but it an automatic tranny. It will do this in FWD or REV but the lady said that if you get it to go it does fine 80% , shifts into all the gears and seems fine but as soon as you come to a stop it locks up and jams all up and stalls the engine. Im going to do some work on it myself but dont know anything about these 4cyl. little automatic trannys in a 1997 0r 98 ranger.
Hell i was supprised to see 2 spark plugs fpr each cyl. 8 plugs for a 4 cyl., thats crazy, made it had to dignose a misfire. So any idears will be my 1st step.
So thanks in advance and just think your helping a little old ford ranger lady, she loves her truck and she is only 4ft and has to be 74-76 yeras old, poor lady been getting screwed from some crack head guy in the hood fixing nothing but costing her twice as much to fix it. I dont charge her anything so thats why i am not just jumping on this if its a tranny rebuild or that touqe converter, hell im glad he did that cause i wouldnt have charged her for doing it and i have to do it on the ground in the middle of the worst winter in years.
So thanks

 

PLEASE help!!!

 

The guy working on it in the past is a total idiot. DO NOT let him work on the truck anymore. It sounds like he may have caused the transmission to fail in the first place. Plus he was simply ripping you/her off.

I'm sorry I can't help you. I don't know much about automatic transmissions.



GB :)

 

What year is this truck, 97/98 dont have a vacuum modulator on the passenger side as its computer controlled.

That monster paragraph is a real PITA to read, break up your thoughts with a double space.

The auto trans is a delicate parts filled bomb, screw any of it up and it doesn't work. At this point I would be suspect of any work done by this guessing tool. Its hard to help with any aspect of this over the net, IMHO the trans needs a rebuild be a skilled shop. Just to remove any doubt of stupid mechanics mistakes.

Here is the line pressure numbers. These are for a 96, which should be good for 95-97, as the trans changed electronics in 98.

 

You are right, I'm not speller or a writer but i can spin some wrenches. I'm a GM tech and know a little about everything else but i stay away from trannys and rear ends, they are not my specialty. As for a shop doing the work, well that's out of the picture. She can not aford that this is why I'm on here asking for help. I know he didnt cause anything else with the tranny cause its doing the same this it was doing before he started screwing with it.
so I'm just asking if any one has seen this before and if so what was it, Maybe i have this listed on the wrong part of the site, if i do can some one re-list it on the right part. I wish it was my truck, i would just ripe the tranny out and have a shop go thru it but its not and i cant throw 2 grand on a truck that isnt worth it and not mine.
The truck is older then 98 cause it dont have OBD2 now that i think about it. It doesn't even have OBD1, it has the old style ford computer box that you hook up under the hood and check the number of flashes, I'm gonna check to see if its throwing any codes. I haven't checked to many things cause dont know were to start and i was hoping that some one was going to say, YES i know what that problem is, its blablabla and i could fix it, but no luck on that route, so I'm just going to start with the basic checks with the pressure checks and see what we got.
thanks again for all the help!!!! and I'm really thankful,
charlie

 

Those pressures listed are for the computer controlled 96, the vacuum controlled a4ld will be different.

If the truck has a computer it is obdI, the year will greatly help diagnosing the issue. My vote is the vac line on the modulator or the modulator itself. However I have no information on years older than 95 nor have I owned one.