2003 Ranger, 2.3, 2-3 shift is very firm

[351Mazda]

Been on Google for a while and am getting a lot of conflicting information. Just bought the truck. No transmission codes.

Other than the 2-3 shift it's decent. Seems to hunt for gears a little but nothing unexpected for a 20 year old trans with 165k on it.

2-3 shift absolutely slams into gear. Feels like it's going to break something when it shifts.

At this point I'm thinking just drop the pan and put a new/reman valve body in. I've read various fixes of tearing into the valve body and replacing components but it seems like i can get one for like $200 and be done with it.

Would replacing the valve body fix this problem or should I be looking in a different direction? Thank you

 

[superj]

have you changed your transmission fluid?

my mazda6 was doing the same thing and it ended up being a sensor that reads the speed of one of the gears. i don't know if rear wheel drive transmissions have the same thing though. this sensor just unscrewed from transmission and a new once screwed in and transmission was back to fine

 

[351Mazda]

have you changed your transmission fluid?

my mazda6 was doing the same thing and it ended up being a sensor that reads the speed of one of the gears. i don't know if rear wheel drive transmissions have the same thing though. this sensor just unscrewed from transmission and a new once screwed in and transmission was back to fine

Have not changed fluid yet, was planning on dropping the pan this weekend and doing that.

Interesting. That would be nice. Do you remember what the sensor was? Did it throw a code? I don't have any transmission codes.

 

[superj]

i have been trying to think of the name of it. it was something weird but i cannot remember. i will have to go to the mazda forum and find my posts about it.

it didn't throw a code but would shift hard and sometimes it wouldn't shift up to the top gears. it would stay in second or third on the highway sometimes.

 

[superj]

range sensor is whats its called. sometimes transaxle range sensor but it was range sensor on my mazda6.