I have a 96 Ranger 4x4 with the 3.0/auto Picked it up last summer and immediately enjoyed the pleasure of installing a new engine. And everything else bolted to the truck. (All the way down to new cruise control buttons) I did heavy line for ford for decades, so I’m confident in my install. the transmission allegedly has 20k-ish miles on a rebuild. However, I flushed the transmission with a wix filter and changed the tcase oil. on cold start it has a five count delay before engaging reverse. Goes away after it warms up and shifts well. I recently picked up the parts to address this, but haven’t gotten into it yet. the other night on cold start it felt like it was stuck between first (or some forward gear) and reverse. Shifted hard as hell and logged the engine down. It worked fine after shutting the truck down and restarting. It has done this twice. With no money light. my question is this, is there some catastrophic failure going on here, or is this a know issue that the gaskets will fix? I was planning a manual swap this summer, any chance own the ouija board of transmission faults and can tell me if this thing will live a few months of 45 mile each way interstate commute? (3x/week) I have the clutch pedal assembly (thanks Temu! There is a story here) clutch assembly with flywheel, master cylinder and have found a low mileage 5 speed from a 97 for about 1/3 the price of a 150k+ 5r55e. The truck with the trans mission also has an ecm.
