'87 Ranger; 2.9L; A4LD Trans

[jbagley33]

I purchased an '87 ranger for my daughter's first vehicle. She is helping me work on it as I have time. We finally got it running and on the road about a month ago. We ran into a small issue that I cannot figure out. I'm hoping someone can offer some advice on it.

We parked on a slight incline (front uphill). When we went to leave the trans would not go into reverse (it shifted easily but would not go into gear). When I got home and tried it on flat ground it went into gear just fine.

SHe has driven it sparingly, as I have been out to sea for the last several weeks, and has not had any issues on flat ground. I will be driving it a bit this week to see if I can replicate the reverse issue. I am at a loss of what caused this issue, and could use some advice before I rebuild/ replace the trans.

Thanks,

Jon

 

[chrwilkins30]

Best addive dont rebuild the a4ld. They are not reliable. Can your daughter drive stick if so m5od and 4.0 clutch.

 

[1986fordranger]

was the truck nosed up hill when you had problems with it if so try puting the transmission in neutral and leting the truck roll back a little bit and try it again it may align some of the few gears in the transmission and work fine , chrwilkins30 it depends on if anyone took care of it or not i have seen some automatics last for over 300,000 miles

 

[4.0B2]

a4ld is a great trans IMO, i have 2.. and have had no transmission problems (caused by the transmission at least. i've had VSS trouble, and computer trouble)

so... check the fluid? try letting the gears align better. idk what would cause this tho..

don't be scared of the a4ld, we have one that has 160,000 miles on it, and only thing touched is filter and fluid. on my b2, its had an overhaul kit put in it, b/c i tore it down when i did the 4.0 swap-- but NOT b/c it needed it.

 

[jbagley33]

Thanks

Thanks for the advice so far. I will be driving it a bit tomorrow and trying the reverse on a hill again. I'll be changing out the filter and fluids in a few weeks, I'll take a closer look at the innards then. If it weren't for the Navy I'd have more time to work on it.

As far as this trans lasting a while, according to CarFax this truck has over 500K miles on it. Odometer only has 5 digits, but CarFax states the odometer has been tripped 5 times thus far in its lifetime. Not sure if the trans has that many miles on it, but it looks like the original install.

Thanks again,

Jon

 

[constablepotts]

Hey im new to the site and would like to know if any one has done a tranny swap, a4ld to a m5od and if so how difficult is it. Any suggestions or should i just rebuild my a4ld. Thank you for any support.