1994 Ford Ranger 4.0 v6 4x4 will not engage in any gear, revs in every gear

[joshbrown21]

So I went off roading and launched off a jump in my prerunner and cased the landing, I bottomed out my rear susspension enough to buck my rear wheels off the ground and nose wheely for a few feet. After that I went to step on the throttle to keep going but my truck would just rev as if it was in neutral. I stopped and restarted it and in every gear (Reverse, neutral, drive, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st) it would rev and not engage into gear. It is now in my garage and im stumped. My dad thinks it has something to do with the solenoids, but we are not sure. The driveshaft and the U-joints all seem to be fine and in tact. We dropped the transmission pan to scope it out and check out the solenoids. Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong?

Thanks

 

[adsm08]

Does park hold the vehicle?

 

[joshbrown21]

yes, the linkage engages all the way down into the transmission from the steering wheel

 

[ElectraRider]

electronic 4 wheel shift or manual shift?

 

[joshbrown21]

electronic 4 wheel shift or manual shift?

Electronic

 

[baddis]

did the speedometer needle still move while it was reving?

 

[joshbrown21]

did the speedometer needle still move while it was reving?

No

 

[Andy D]

This is just a wild @$$ed guess. The transfer case mode shifter, the electric shift has been jounced into neutral. Spongy as the Rat's frame is, I keep all 4 235s firmly planted

 

[MikeyK]

torque converter stripped out. Relatively cheap/easy to replace but you have to drop the trans. Happens in fords all the time.
You must have kept on the gas when the wheels lifted and caused a shock on the system when they came back down. (wheels spinning faster off the ground, hitting the ground, wheels moving faster than the truck and ground; something had to give)

 

[wildbill23c]

Grandpa's 93 Ranger had the same exact issue. Well except it hadn't been jumped. Just the transmission one day decided to not work, and this was after about 13k on the rebuild of the transmission. I remember reading somewhere that these A4LD transmissions were notorious for this failure and had to do with the shift solenoids and valve body if I remember correctly. All I know is after the 2nd transmission failed within a year after the rebuild the whole truck went bye bye.

 

[MastuhWaffles]

It is probably the torque converter, I've seen it happen before.

 

[wildbill23c]

My grandfather's 93 Ranger when it did this, it had reverse for a while, and then even reverse wouldn't work anymore.

The shop did a complete rebuild supposedly, and put the original torque converter back in. AAMCO did the rebuild and said it was pretty common for either the valve body or the solenoids to fail in these transmissions. However, for AAMCO supposedly being such a great transmission shop they sure didn't prove it to me with a tranny rebuild and another failure within 13,000 miles.

 

[MikeyK]

bring it in for free diagnostic most local trans shops do this, but if it lost everything at once it is torque converter. The torque converter is what pressurizes the fluid, without pressure your transmission will not do anything.

^^Wildbill23c you say you still had some gears left and some did not work, YOU needed a rebuild, very different symptoms from loosing everything at once and loosing some gradually from wear and tear.

 

[mikeluckey]

joshbrown

Josh, this may sound dumb, but it happened to me, did you knock the transfercase out of gear when you hit.?? if in neutral, it won't work. I did that one time, my daughter riding next to me kicked it into neutral, and I didn't know it. Good luck!