'02 XLT 3.0L shut down and speedo

[yankeetiger]

my Ranger has started doing something that is very odd...after this past weekend trans rebuild, in which the battery was unhooked for 6 days. on the test drive, trans worked AWESOME..then suddenly the ABS light and the OD light started flashing, trans went into "limp home"...talked with a couple buddies..and was told to, unhook battery[already had], then hook it up and turn key[nothing else] for at least 30 min, then start engine and let come up to temp before driving..ok did that, all worked great...except..now, it has a VERY unpredictable symptom..

driving along with all just fine, it does this "total dark/off" for everything..eng shuts off[sometimes fires right back up by itself]and speedo starts reading 0mph up to 30mph while sitting still... does this ranger now have a bad case of Alzheimers/Dementia? I have a theory, which is just that, a theory...last weekend when it did all of this, i have a "code reader" not diagnostic scanner, that i tried plugging in, which gave a "total" power off then back on and radio ejected a cd..

is there something with the anti-theft and radio causing this? all because of the battery being unhooked for the 6 days? it does have an aftermarket radio.... open to suggestions/better theory..

i have gone back through and double checked for pinched wires, loose ground.

 

[RonD]

Check that the Speed sensor(VSS) is hooked up and in place, on an '02 it should be on the transmission, and since you did work on that.....................

The VSS is used for the ABS, Speedo, and computer uses it for shifting trans and OD, and shutting off injectors when coasting

 

[yankeetiger]

Update on truck....

Weds night it did this shut down again. every time this occurred, the radio[aftermarket] was turned off. wed night when this happened, i turned radio on, drove it numerous times yesterday with zero incident. Nothing this morning either, everything is working great. time will tell..but for now, i'm going with a "gremlin" in the system that stayed up after midnight and was given water..LOL

 

[yankeetiger]

2 day no event

Hey all,


2nd day with zero/no malfunction or problem this is all, because of the simple aftermarket radio being turned on? prob not. until then i'm going with this..

" a gremlin that was fed water and kept awake after midnight.."