Torque converter issue

[RangerRoger]

I joined this site a few weeks ago when my 2012 Ranger develeped some serious transmission issues. Here in Australia we've had the new look Rangers a while, but it wasn't until mine started acting up that I did some searches and wouldnt you know it, Rangers are notrious for blowing torque converters. I live in far northern Australia and we don't have many options for...anything really! But thats part of the charm right? But when things go wrong it can really be a problem. Anyhoo symptoms were it sort of thudding around 2000rpm and the tach jumping up and down. The thudding felt first like a drive shaft, or like running over the concrete joints in a road. It was doing this for about a week while i was trying to figure out what it was exactly, then one moring all hell broke loose and the selector indicator on the dash started jumping from D to P to R to 1 just all over the place. I took it into a mechanic I've used for other vehicles for years. First time he changed a couple of relays and claimed it was fixed. it wasnt at all. Admittedly unless you really test drive it you hardly notice it, as I said it was like a thumping like a bad tire even. So I take it back and explain better and they test drive it and it does its thing with the selector indicator flipping out. So now they know its serious and believe its the torque convertor and has probably spat out enough metal into the transmission that it is being picked up by a magnetic sensor which is confusing which gear its in. A torque converter here, if i could get one would be around $3,000. My local junk yard amazingly has a transmission from a 2019 3.2 desiel with 50,000kms on it. Mine is a 2.2 turbo desiel and I check around and call Ford even and they confirm that the transmission is the same. They want $3,300 for it as a complete package of torque convertor, tranmission and transfer case. The mechanic has it switched out in a day and Im back on the road $4,500 later. lets just hope this transmission holds up. The was another Ranger in the mechanics shop with a transmission that was slipping. This one has 80,000kms on it and had had its torque converter changed twice! They think when it blew the first converter, it also had spat metal into the transmission but because they didn't change the transmission it had wrecked the clutches now.

So there you are.

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[Trigganometry]

On my 1997 Ranger I had a 4R44E transmission. After 187K it needed a rebuild. My torque converter was slipping bad and just needed some attention. The rebuild was 2.6K and ran like a champ taking me to 287K until I got the 2020 Ranger.

If the filter is new and do a fluid change you should be good to go for a while. Hopefully the valve body and solenoids are in good shape on it.

 

[RangerRoger]

On my 1997 Ranger I had a 4R44E transmission. After 187K it needed a rebuild. My torque converter was slipping bad and just needed some attention. The rebuild was 2.6K and ran like a champ taking me to 287K until I got the 2020 Ranger.

If the filter is new and do a fluid change you should be good to go for a while. Hopefully the valve body and solenoids are in good shape on it.

Yep like I said I live in a very special place, its beautiful and a tourist attraction, but getting parts, service, anything is always a pain and much more expensive than even other places in Australia which is already way more expensive than the US. We have a couple of transmission shops, neither of them would even look at mine for a month! I stopped working on my own vehicles about 10 years ago. Unless you maintain a decent shop and tools and keep updated with every change in every year, its just easier and in the long run cheaper to let someone else do it and hope they treat you right.

Isn't the 97 Rangers in the US an entirely different vehicle?

 

[Trigganometry]

Yep like I said I live in a very special place, its beautiful and a tourist attraction, but getting parts, service, anything is always a pain and much more expensive than even other places in Australia which is already way more expensive than the US. We have a couple of transmission shops, neither of them would even look at mine for a month! I stopped working on my own vehicles about 10 years ago. Unless you maintain a decent shop and tools and keep updated with every change in every year, its just easier and in the long run cheaper to let someone else do it and hope they treat you right.

Isn't the 97 Rangers in the US an entirely different vehicle?

Yes, 97 is totally different in many ways. That particular transmission was a 3 speed with overdrive. Had a 4:11 rear end so wasn’t to bad. Todays turbo charged is a totally different league

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