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I bought an '02 Ranger 4x4 a couple of years ago for my son. The week before he got his driver's license, someone stole the car I'd bought for him out of the driveway. It was recovered a few weeks later after the thief rear-ended someone, and the car was a total loss. He expressed interest in a pickup, so I started looking around for a Ranger or Taco. I found this Ranger with 175k and some minor body damage (perfect for a new driver, and it kept the price down), but on the test drive the transmission was shifting hard and had a nasty whine. The fluid was completely black, and I assumed it needed a new transmission, so I gave the seller a lowball offer, expecting him to tell me to take a hike. He surprised me by coming way down on the price, and I ended up buying it. We dropped the pan and changed the fluid multiple times until what was in there was mostly pink - I think it was six or seven changes to get there. That smoothed out the shifting and silenced the whine, so I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.
Fast-forward two years. The trans was back to shifting hard, although the fluid color was still good and the whine hadn't come back. Finally one day I got a call from my son, saying that he was stuck in a parking lot with the truck only moving in reverse. I drove it home - once it cooled off, I could get it to go forward in 1 and 2 - it was only a couple of miles from the house, so I was ready to back it all the way home if I had to! I dropped the old transmission and ordered a reman , so I'm all ready to cross my fingers again and hope for the best. We'll see how it goes - it seems that 70-80% of remans are fine, but I'll drop it again and claim warranty if I have to.
In real life I'm a controls engineer for a manufacturing plant in New Mexico. I do machine design, repairs, controls updates, and anything else that needs to be done. When I'm not working, or working on one of my vehicles (my family has five, ranging from 15 to 25 years old, so that's pretty often) I fly hot air balloons, which is not that uncommon of a hobby in New Mexico.
Fast-forward two years. The trans was back to shifting hard, although the fluid color was still good and the whine hadn't come back. Finally one day I got a call from my son, saying that he was stuck in a parking lot with the truck only moving in reverse. I drove it home - once it cooled off, I could get it to go forward in 1 and 2 - it was only a couple of miles from the house, so I was ready to back it all the way home if I had to! I dropped the old transmission and ordered a reman , so I'm all ready to cross my fingers again and hope for the best. We'll see how it goes - it seems that 70-80% of remans are fine, but I'll drop it again and claim warranty if I have to.
In real life I'm a controls engineer for a manufacturing plant in New Mexico. I do machine design, repairs, controls updates, and anything else that needs to be done. When I'm not working, or working on one of my vehicles (my family has five, ranging from 15 to 25 years old, so that's pretty often) I fly hot air balloons, which is not that uncommon of a hobby in New Mexico.
