I have a 1994 Ford Ranger I recently acquired. Now I know I have transmission problems the torque converter is shot as is the transmission. I had to do a head swap on it when I bought it and when I plugged everything in I noticed that there were two wires coming from the transmission only one I was able to plug in. The other wire harness is for the TCC and 3/4 shift solenoids. I'm fairly certain the reason the transmission went bad in the first place is because those wires were never hooked up when the transmission was rebuilt and put back in. I bought the truck knowing it had bad heads because of the transmission looks brand new. I have another transmission to put in however I'm going to run across the same issue if I can't figure out how to wire those two solenoids up. I will post a picture of the two wires that I speak of and the transmission itself. What I need is a picture of where exactly these wires plug into because I'm at my wit's end and have no idea what to do

 

The little black wire is the wire that I have no idea where it goes. The other wire I know is the neutral safety switch and that plugs in just fine. A4ld 4-speed automatic transmission. 1994 Ford Ranger 3.0 l

 

Not plugging in the Solenoids wouldn't hurt the transmission, it would cause Check engine light(CEL) to be on all the time.
Point of solenoids is better MPG and better shifting

There are only 2 wiring connectors on the A4LD, NSS(neutral switch), its also for backup lights
And in 1994 a 3 wire solenoid connector

You can see the connection here: A4LD Swap Pictures

And this is just a good A4LD chart from transgo: A4LD specification chart from Transgo. | Ford Explorer and Ford Ranger Forums - Serious Explorations

 

Thanks for the pictures that takes care of one solenoid. Now I just got to figure out the 3/4 shift solenoid

 

???

3 wire connection is for both solenoids
12v wire in the center, the 2 solenoids share the 12v, key on 12volts
TCC ground, to computer
3/4 ground, to computer

Computer activates a solenoid by grounding it, computer can also "see" the 12v passing thru the solenoids wire coil on the ground wire so knows the wiring is OK, computer will set a code if no 12v on either of these ground wires
Most automotive controls are grounds
Fuel Injectors
Fuel pump relay
Spark
IAC Valve
EVAP vacuum valve
EGR vacuum valve

Just safer to run ground wires, and fewer 12v wires

 

So are you saying I should ground out those two solenoids? The reason for all this questioning that I'm asking is there is nowhere in my trucks wiring harness to plug the solenoids in. It's my understanding that right next to the plug for the neutral safety and back up lights should be the plug for the two solenoids. The end of that harness in particular one part is for my transmission one part is for the O2 sensor driver side Bank and there's one more plug for the distributor. Shouldn't there be another plug there for my solenoids? Or is there just a plug running to a ground? I haven't seen anybody else's truck or pictures to know for sure

 

Look in engine bay between firewall and back of the engine, there should be a 3 wire plug, it is there on manual or automatic Rangers, it is FOR automatics, its the plug in for the solenoids, and there would be an extension 3 wire harness plugged into it to reach down to transmission.
Manual trans vehicle should have plastic insert in that connector.

Worse case is that you make your own wiring harness from computer to Transmission.

All 3 wires come from computer in engine bay
Red wire, 12v
Orange wire, 3-4 shift
Purple wire, Torque lock

EEC-IV computer Pin numbering here: Ford EEC-IV

Trans connector pins are seen it Transgo page above

1994 wiring diagram below

So 12v, red wire, can be spliced in from computers pin 57 wire
3-4 Ground, orange wire, is pin 52
TCC Ground, purple wire, is pin 53

Or when you pull computer up and out you could see if you can trace pin 52/53 wires to see where they end up.

All this assumes there is an automatic vehicle computer being used, manual trans vehicle computer won't have software/firmware to operate pins 52/53

 

I know there's got to be an automatic transmission computer being used because the only reason I knew that the wire wasn't hooked up is because I ran Diagnostics in the truck told me so. Thanks so much for all the information. I'll be sure to look at the truck the moment I get home since this has been bugging me for a week now. I don't want to do the transmission swap until I get it figured out

 

Does anyone have a picture of where these plugs plug into?

 

left side of the transmission