4R55E delayed/no shift into Drive

[Shran]

1995 Ranger, 4.0/auto. Was my fiance's grandpa's truck and it has just a hair under 88,000 miles on it. He told us that he had the trans rebuilt years ago, but it was parked for several years so it doesn't have many miles on it. I didn't get any paperwork with it and I kind of question why it would have failed at such low mileage, but he is pretty sharp with mechanical stuff so I will take him at his word that it was actually rebuilt and not just flushed or something.

Problem I am having is either no shift from Park to Drive (seems like it stays in Park) or a delayed shift from Park to Drive by several seconds. Sometimes (probably 50% of the time) the Park to Drive shift is fine, no problem. Park to reverse works every time, park to 1 or 2 works every time, trans seems to function fine otherwise. Hot/cold does not seem to affect it, kinda random. Apparently this has been a problem with this truck since the trans was gone through... one of the other relatives was driving it and said she had issues with it not shifting too, years ago.

Fluid looks great but is way over full - I have a new pan w/ drain plug ordered, going to drop it and refill to the proper level. Hopefully that will help but if not:

I hear there is some kind of valve body gasket that blows out on these? Is it worth replacing that while I've got the pan off or is it something else?

 

[Dirtman]

I can't comment on the shift issue except for the possibility that the shifter, cable or range sensor is not aligned properly. If reverse works fine then it shouldn't be a pressure issue. Possibly a failing sprag?

The valve body separator plate gaskets are what blow out. They are a 3 piece set. Gasket, steel plate and another gasket that get sandwiched together between the valve body and transmission housing. One or both of the gaskets can fail. The solution was a one piece steel plate with the gaskets bonded to it. If the transmission was rebuilt chances are they already replaced the old style gaskets for the new bonded plate.

 

[Shran]

Oh yeah, I need to look at the shifter cable adjustment. I forgot about that. I almost can rule it out because it goes into every other gear just fine and they line up with the shift indicator on the dash. Yes, reverse is strong and works every time.

Has anyone installed a shift kit on one of these? I wouldn't mind if it shifted a little firmer... 3.27 gears do not help... but it seems like a typical mushy automatic.

I sure like driving automatics more these days but I don't like all the weird little quirks they have.

 

[Dirtman]

I put a trans-go shift kit in my 5r44e with the medium springs as well as a sonnax kit. With your trans it should work great. It fixes some known issues so its not just a performance upgrade. The problem with mine being newer (post 2001) is that it has adaptive shift control. When I clear the adaptive control from the computer it shifts fast and really firm. But after a while the computer re-learns and adapts to the shift kit and softens the shifts back to normal by modulating the pressure.

Yours doesn't have adaptive control so that wouldn't be an issue.