1995 3.0 A/T Shifting Issues

[jamesnelson101]

Just bought a used 95 Ranger with 54K miles that is in pretty good shape other than some very strange electrical issues that don't add up. It has no speedometer, odometer, trip meter, or cruise control. That being said I am not sure if that is tied into my main issue which is the transmission not shifting properly. To start I have googled and scoured all forums and checked the usual culprits of the speedo/transmissions and haven't found anything remotely similar to what I have going on. It looks like the old man that I bought it from tried to fix it and gave up. The VSS is brand new, the ABS sensor on the top of the differential is new (no ABS warning light on dash) and the transmission range sensor is brand new. When you hook a scanner to the OBD it will tell you the speed its going so I would assume that the speed sensor signal wire is working. In addition to no speedo etc. I have a P0707 code (transmission range sensor low voltage) and it will not shift out of 2nd gear. What is odd is that if you unhook the wire harness from the transmission range sensor and hook it back up the O/D light flashes but the transmission shifts just fine for a little while until the truck warms up, once that happens the light will quit flashing and it will revert back to not shifting out of second gear and the voltage coming from the transmission range selector drops, which triggers the code, this has no effect on my non working speedo and cruise control. I thought it could be the ECM so I pulled it out to get the number and it looks like it has been replaced recently as well as there are stickers that say the warranty will be void if seal is broken and it is very clean. I have tried to figure out a common factor in all of these problems and only come up with the possibility of the cluster given that everything else looks brand new but the 1995 cluster is year specific and the people selling them know this and they are expensive so I am hesitant to buy another one on a hunch. Any Ideas? Thanks in advance for anyone that replies!

 

[franklin2]

You probably know more about this than I do, but does your truck have what they call a PSOM in the cluster? From what I understand, this takes the raw signal from the VSS sensor, and converts it to a signal that the speedometer can use. I can't remember does the ECM use the raw VSS or does it use the converted PSOM signal?

 

[jamesnelson101]

My biggest concern is the shifting problem but for some reason I am thinking they could also all be tied together somehow. Not sure about PSOM, haven't heard that one before, I will check it out.

 

[ShhhhhDougsHere]

I truly don't know very much at all about transmission.

With that said before I went to prison 20 years ago, I bought a 91 Chevy cavalier that when I pulled up to the stoplight it would die every time.

I tried all kinds of different research at the time and couldn't figure out the problem.

I was talking to the manager at AutoZone one night about 3:00 a.m. because I worked for a pizza place delivering pizzas and had got off work and the AutoZone was open 24/7 so I was there all the time at night time.

I was telling the manager about my problem and a gentleman behind me tapped me on the shoulder and told me there was a sensor on my transmission that controlled the internal clutches on the automatic transmission.

He told me "unplugged the sensor and leave it unplugged you'll lose 5 miles to the gallon. But you won't have any problems after that."

I asked him how to change the sensor, he told me I had to completely disassemble the transmission just to get to the internal part of the sensor to replace it.
The man was a transmission specialist and I didn't know nothing about it.
I took his advice and ran with it.

Sold the car 6 months later and made a good profit. I was courteous enough to tell the new owner about the problem however.
They was grateful.

As I already said I don't know much at all about transmissions but maybe you have something like this being your problem.

You spoke in your address earlier about being able to unplug something and then once you plugged it back in it worked fine for a while.

Have you tried unplugging it and leave it unplugged?

 

[jamesnelson101]

I have not tried leaving the sensor on the differential unplugged, I think that would just throw an ABS code. If I leave the transmission range sensor unplugged it would not let the truck start as it is the same as a neutral safety switch. I wish I would bump into a transmission specialist and get some good free advice!

 

[ShhhhhDougsHere]

There are moments in a person's life were they truly do have something special happen to them that is really amazing. That was one of mine.

I truly was blessed to meet that man that day/night.
He turned out to be in his late 70's and in poor health. He died about 4 months after I meet him.
I was lucky that he was having a very good day/night when I meet. He gave me his phone number and I called him later that day ( in the day light hours ) he was asleep but his granddaughter who answered the phone took down my number and he called me later.

Him and I talked a lot when he was having good days.
I went to his house a few times for some of those talks.

The family called me the day he died and told me I was more then welcome to come to the funeral.
I've only cried at 3 funerals so far in my life.
His was the first.

Im sorry to say that some people never have something that special happen to them.

Good luck James.

 

[jamesnelson101]

Well $800 later my problem is fixed. I didn't have time to track the problem any further so I took it to a shop that could put their expensive scan tool on it and pinpoint in 5 mins. Somewhere along the line someone for whatever reason spliced an extra ground into the trans position sensor and tapped into a wire that is not always grounded; this threw the computer into limp mode. There was also a wire that had the shielding worn out from rubbing and shorted on top of the transmission. I hate paying for someone to do something that I can do myself but that probably would have taken me a long time to figure out.

 

[ShhhhhDougsHere]

Well James I'm glad that you was able to afford to get your truck fixed.
I agree it sucks to have to pay someone else to do something we can do ourselves.

But I've found that when we swallow our pride and allow an expert to do what they do best it works out best for us in the long run.

Once Again good luck to you.