Failure to Communicate with PCM while trying to program key

[zf98ranger]

gonna grab your question out and post it all by itself so the trans experts can chime in (I am totally a manual guy, I hate the wizard boxes)...



My own response to that is: A bad/dying/dead computer can cause hard shift, inappropriate shift, and failure to shift - including not even getting into 1st.... beyond that I can't really advise... I would say if it lurches, then your issue is probably not in the computer...but that is a guess.

All the PATS systems (which you definitely don't have) is around spark kill/starter kill/start but not run more than 1 second - all ignition/start, the PATS system has nothing to do with transmission (yet as of 2025).

This makes sense, Im back to not thinking it was the computer. I got some transmission fluid, ran the truck, checked fluid and it looked okay. But I also gave the truck a little more gas today, and the right rear wheel spun and the left rear did not. So now I am leaning more towards a brake issue localized to the left rear? It rained a good deal in the week and a half (now two weeks) that it sat, cant remember if I had the e brake on or not while it was sitting. I've sprayed blaster on the cable and drum itself that I can get to without the wheel up, I'll see if that does anything and maybe take it off tomorrow if I can get it up.

 

[zf98ranger]

UPDATE:

Finally got the truck off the ground to check the wheels and it turns out it was just a seized RR drum. Im not 100% sure if it was the parking brake cable or the shoes themselves-- the drum wasnt too awful hard to get off. But I took it apart, sprayed parts of it, and knocked different pieces with a hammer, and now its back moving again. Thank you all for all your help!