Looking at 94 B4000 LE . . . Help

hi all,

Tomorrow night I'm looking at at Mazda B4000 with 136k on the ticker. He said the tranny was re-built within the last few years (auto) but shifts hard here and there.

What should I be looking out for on these trucks, aside from the obvious used auto things, like rust etc. Is there anything specific this models fails at. If the auto tranny needs replacing withing the next year..what am I looking at for price.

any help would be appreciated. any opinions on the model would be appreciated as well...it's an LE

thanks!!

3 years ago i bought a '96 mazda b4000 LE 4x4, and have had no complaints about it. its a great truck. the LE is the nicer trim package, a step above the SE model. I dont know what to tell you about the transmission or how much it may cost to replace it, but i can tell you mine has 180K on it and its still going strong. I think the mazdas have a good original look that strays away from from the typical ranger look, yet you can still buy almost all your replacement parts as ranger parts (as the sheet metal is the only difference between the mazda/ranger). Check to make sure it will go into 4wd maybe? as the electronic shifter can be finicky sometimes.

Overall, great truck, and good luck!

thanks for the info....

ya mazdas are great trucks last december i bought my 94 b3000 4x4 amazing truck had 131 000 km on it original, standard, manual hubs, 3" lift 31" tires a little surface fender rust but an overall amazing truck, i think you should just price out a tranny in advance to get an idea on how much its goin to be if you need to replace it down the road.

'94 B4000- tranny thoughts

B4000's up through 1994 have the A4LD overdrive automatic transmission.
Over a run of several years, Ford made several upgrades.
1994 was the last year for the A4LD, and has all the upgrades that Ford made.
See 'My A4LD Rebuild Diary' here on TRS for a really good in-depth look at the transmission.

Read the 'Diary' for a description of the upgrades.

I used the 'Diary' along with the Ford factory manual when I rebuilt mine.

My impression reading the forums is that the trans is OK as long as you don't beat it to death.
Also, if you tow a trailer, take it OUT of Overdrive!

One other thought:
If the truck has a BUNCH of miles on it, and if you do get some odd shifting, I would suggest:
-drop the pan, change the filter & fluid,
-do a full fluid flush,
If there is a delay when you shift into Low or reverse:
-pull the 'low' band hydraulic solinoid (the round thing next to the valve body, visible after you drop the pan to change the filter.)
NOTE: It's not hard, but there is a spring behind the round cover. READ the 'A4LD Rebuild Diary' for detailed information before you do this!

If you have odd shifting in the higher gears:
-replace (or have a shop replace) the hydraulic shift solinoids that are accessible via the round covers (about 2-1/2" to 3" diameter) on the side of the transmission, behind the heat shield.
This will probably include removing the exhaust Y-pipe to gain access, but you should NOT have to drop the tranny.

We bought the truck with 170K+ miles and a bad transmission, my daughter and I rebuilt it for her as her 'first car'. (I'm a big believer in having the kids know what is going on under the hoood, and working on the car makes them respect the machine more than just tossing them a set of keys!)

In our case, I believe the reason that the trans had failed was:
1) heat from the exhaust pipe caused the 'solinoids' (which are sort of rubber-coated pistons, with a rubber lip seal) to get hard, so that they could not form a really good seal.
2) the previous owner, after driving the truck like Granny for many years, gave it to his son, who dogged it to death.

I think that the solinoid pistons got hard, could not make a good seal, and so could not hold full pressure. Without full pressure, the bands did not have enough grip under 'abuse' conditions, and started slipping. We found the #2 band had failed, tearing up the drum it runs on.

Again, the 'A4LD rebuild Diary' is GREAT!!

All the Best!

Jim Jelinski

PS- The kid 'showed her mettle' sticking with it through the transmission rebuild.... to go off to university, I bought her a new Mustang GT 'vert!

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'94 B4000 A4LD auto, stock.

Hello,

Go with a 1997 B4000. It has a few good fixes that the 94 lacked. And it's the last year they had the TTB front end.

Adreenaleen

i just bought my '94 b3000 last week with the same concern. it has 120,000 on it, a4ld automatic tranny. the trans was my only concern with the truck as i had heard stories about older ford a/t's failing. the first time i drove it, it had a few rough shifts. nevertheless i bought it and since i've been driving it, it has been fine. i think it had sat for a while before i bought it. overall very smooth for a 14 year old transmission. it had also been serviced regularly. depending on when the fluid and filter was last changed, do it right away and every 30k after that and hopefully you'll have no problems down the road.

Hello,
Pleasee help I am looking for the 'A4LD rebuild Diary' ?
Can some one email it to me keester66@comcast.net