Here's the problem. Since this morning, my automatic tranny won't shift pass 2nd. When I left for work, everything was fine, then a few blocks from home, it had trouble shifting to 3rd, finally did with a fair bit of noise then I immediately lost 3rd totally.
The history is that the tranny has been slipping quite a bit, starting last summer (car was stored last winter). It would sometime take a long time shifting from 2nd to 3rd, and most of the time it would slip (RPM would sometime jump a thousand or more) when it did. It would slip between 1st and 2nd too. And 3rd and OD. When I would stop, it would shift back to 1st with a jerk and a loud metallic noise. By the way, since this morning, it shifts back to 1st quite gracefully, no more jerks or bangs.
Now the details of the current ailment. I still have reverse, functions completely normally. I've tried with the engine/tranny hot and or cold. No 3rd gear. Tried gentle acceleration, WOT acceleration and in between. Same thing. The 1-2, 2-1 shifts seems quite normal. The MLPS has been changed October 2002, so very recently. I've driven less then 20K miles since then. Somebody asked about the tranny fluid. It was changed back in October 2002. Level is fine, looks fine, smells like a bad fire the day after.
One more advice I received was to pull the codes. Ok, fine. How do I do that? Do I need a special code reader? Can I make a home made one? How much do they usually cost? Where do I connect it? At the EEC-IV service port or somewhere on the harness. Basically I would need a "Ford code pulling for Dummies."
At first when it happened, I thought it had finally died and it was time to swap a T5 in there. But if I could delay that until the winter, it would better fit my budget.
Any help, advice, comment will be appreciated.
The history is that the tranny has been slipping quite a bit, starting last summer (car was stored last winter). It would sometime take a long time shifting from 2nd to 3rd, and most of the time it would slip (RPM would sometime jump a thousand or more) when it did. It would slip between 1st and 2nd too. And 3rd and OD. When I would stop, it would shift back to 1st with a jerk and a loud metallic noise. By the way, since this morning, it shifts back to 1st quite gracefully, no more jerks or bangs.
Now the details of the current ailment. I still have reverse, functions completely normally. I've tried with the engine/tranny hot and or cold. No 3rd gear. Tried gentle acceleration, WOT acceleration and in between. Same thing. The 1-2, 2-1 shifts seems quite normal. The MLPS has been changed October 2002, so very recently. I've driven less then 20K miles since then. Somebody asked about the tranny fluid. It was changed back in October 2002. Level is fine, looks fine, smells like a bad fire the day after.
One more advice I received was to pull the codes. Ok, fine. How do I do that? Do I need a special code reader? Can I make a home made one? How much do they usually cost? Where do I connect it? At the EEC-IV service port or somewhere on the harness. Basically I would need a "Ford code pulling for Dummies."
At first when it happened, I thought it had finally died and it was time to swap a T5 in there. But if I could delay that until the winter, it would better fit my budget.
Any help, advice, comment will be appreciated.