Pray to the Electrical Gods!!!!

[budro]

Weird problem here on a 92 ranger 4x4 4.0 A4LD. Driving down the highway at most speeds if i use the blinker to turn left or right to switch lanes it will make the auto trans downshift out of overdrive. If i have the cruise control set it will kick the cruise off like i pushed on the brake as well. Any ideas? Could it be just a bad turn signal switch?

 

[wrecking-crew]

never heard of something like that ever.

 

[martin]

Sounds more like an issue with the harness on the column, perhaps a chaffed wire that moves around when you put out the turn signals. try pulling the covers off the column and see if anything moves around.

 

[Bent Bolt]

never heard of something like that ever.

Neither have I but absolutely anything is possible with electrical problems.
yes, pull the steering column covers off and start looking everywhere for damaged or corroded wiring and connectors.

 

[Explorin94]

You have a bad ground at the tail lights. It's back feeding the brake switch, meaning it is searching for a ground. If you have trailer wiring and it is a "T" connector, take it out and see what happens.

 

[budro]

I can understand the back feed for the brake light ground messing with the cruise control. But why would it cause the tranny to downshift?

 

[pocket-rocket]

If that trans has lockup, it's not actually kicking down, it's disengaging lockup. Most any vehicle with an auto trans with lockup will disengage lockup if you hit the brakes.

 

[Explorin94]

I can understand the back feed for the brake light ground messing with the cruise control. But why would it cause the tranny to downshift?

The transmission shifts in to overdrive by control of the computer. That actually locks up the torque convertor. The way to deactivate overdrive is to step on the brake pedal (takes the ground away). Cruise works the same way.

 

[CJREX]

Check the wiring harness under the hood on the driver side.

It's the harness that goes to the transmission and blinkers. It'll be close to the power steering pump (one of the round connectors that is attached to the inner fender splash shield). See if any of the harness is touching the exhaust manifold.

I had a similar issue with my truck a while back regarding blinkers and cruise. Turned out that the plastic retainer that routes that harness had broken and allowed the harness to contact the exhaust, melting the shield and wire coverings. Whenever 2 wires touched something flaky would happen.

Good Luck!