warmachine5500
Active Member
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2008
- Messages
- 36
- Reaction score
- 0
- Vehicle Year
- 1994
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Transmission
- Automatic
Tras problems? Ranger seems to be misfiring in high gear
The problem vehicle is a 94 Ranger 4.0 4WD. It has about 114K on it. I owned this truck for about 7 years, and never experienced this issue. My uncle owns the truck now as his backup vehicle. He's old and retired, so he doesn't travel far. Or fast for that matter. Yesterday my brother had to borrow the Ranger, as his Blazer is in the shop. He has a about a half hour - 45 minute highway drive to work. It's mostly uphill since the highway travels up a mountain. He reported to me that the truck started shaking while on the highway at around 65 mph.
I looked underneath the front end tonight and everything seems in place. I took it for a drive and I could not replicate the shaking. Even on the highway at 65-75 mph it didn't shake, so I ruled out unbalanced tires. Then I took his route up the mountain. The truck seems to stutter while it's in its highest gear, around 1800-2000 RPM, about 65-70 mph, but ONLY when going up a fairly steep consistent grade. If I give it more gas to make it downshift and bump it up to 3000 or more RPMs, the shaking goes away. The shaking feels like a cylinder is misfiring, but it would do that all the time if that were the case. Not to mention, I have no check engine light at all.
Is this the transmission slipping? 4th gear going out? Any help is much appreciated!
The problem vehicle is a 94 Ranger 4.0 4WD. It has about 114K on it. I owned this truck for about 7 years, and never experienced this issue. My uncle owns the truck now as his backup vehicle. He's old and retired, so he doesn't travel far. Or fast for that matter. Yesterday my brother had to borrow the Ranger, as his Blazer is in the shop. He has a about a half hour - 45 minute highway drive to work. It's mostly uphill since the highway travels up a mountain. He reported to me that the truck started shaking while on the highway at around 65 mph.
I looked underneath the front end tonight and everything seems in place. I took it for a drive and I could not replicate the shaking. Even on the highway at 65-75 mph it didn't shake, so I ruled out unbalanced tires. Then I took his route up the mountain. The truck seems to stutter while it's in its highest gear, around 1800-2000 RPM, about 65-70 mph, but ONLY when going up a fairly steep consistent grade. If I give it more gas to make it downshift and bump it up to 3000 or more RPMs, the shaking goes away. The shaking feels like a cylinder is misfiring, but it would do that all the time if that were the case. Not to mention, I have no check engine light at all.
Is this the transmission slipping? 4th gear going out? Any help is much appreciated!
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