4r44e troubleshooting - no codes

[Cro_86]

New here!
I'm on my third Ranger now over my lifetime. I just purchased this junker from a farm in North Texas - It had a completely dead battery, covered in deer carcass, and quite possibly the dirtiest vehicle I've ever seen.
So, naturally I bought it.
Problems with the transmission: It would go in D/OD just fine, all other gears seemed hard, but I could rev and let it shift with my foot off the gas to get it home (no more than 55MPH). Reverse was pretty hilarious, you'd have to get to about 2,000 RPM and it would SLAM into reverse and then kill the truck (I only did this once).
To go after the obvious, I dropped the pan and found the fluid had a very fine silt in the bottom, but no metal chunks or slivers. I ordered a reman valve body from KBL Auto Parts - it came with new/refurbished solenoids and gasket (which is probably standard). I found that dropping the valve body, someone had some bolts in the wrong place and most were tighter than 90inLbs, but no damage to the old gasket. The reverse servo fell out pretty easily, but the gasket and o-rings seemed uncompromised. I installed the reman valve body without issue, torqued to 90inLbs, found out that the 'missing' 55mm bolt was for the filter (yes, I spent an embarrassing amount of time looking for this 'missing' bolt), reverse servo went in okay and stayed up without assistance, installed a new 4x4 compatible filter, installed the new pan gasket and pan, threw in 5qts of Mercon ATF - and the grand reveal: nothing really worked. Drive is very delayed, reverse sounds like it is going to work but kinda surges like its about to work, then doesn't.
I'm in my driveway, so it has a slight grade to it, so I jacked up the rear end to get it a bit more leveled, and tried all of the gears with the wheels free to spin. 1 and 2 seem okay but slow to engage sometimes, drive will not work immediately, but will start to spin the wheels and then stop, reverse does basically the same - but stays on even shorter.
I made sure the transmission range sensor was calibrated on neutral (some call it a neutral safety switch?), and then I went back and torqued the intermediate and reverse bands to 120inLbs and backed them off two full rotations.
Still nothing.
The company that sold the valve body said I'm losing pressure somewhere - probably the reverse servo - So, I've ordered a new gasket and o-rings for that.

I have no codes - before or after the valvebody change.

Any other words of wisdom would be highly appreciated.

 

[franklin2]

Hard to do surgery on a automatic transmission. Sounds like you have serious burnt clutches, most likely compounded by driving it home. That probably finished them off.

I just did the same thing to a GM 4L60E. Going to work it all of a sudden started revving instead of going. It was dark and cold and I only had 5 miles to get to work. so I nursed it in and made it. Came out when it was light, transmission fluid all over the place, one of the cooler lines loosened and leaked the trans fluid out. Hauled it home, fixed the leak, filled it up, seemed fine like it was before this happened. I thought I had better take it for a test ride, goes right in gear, shifts to 2nd fine, 3rd is no go, slips like crazy. I ruined 3/4 clutch pack by nursing it in that morning with hardly no fluid in it.

 

[Mechrick]

The delayed engagement before the service work is the clue. This is usually caused by fluid leakage around a servo piston or clutch lip seal.

There is a line pressure tap on the right side of the case, checking line pressure in all gears is a good place to start.

 

[Cro_86]

I replaced the reverse servo o-rings and gasket. I got drive back.
still no reverse.
reverse was about 40 psi before I changed those items. I haven’t checked it again - weather turned on me.