new guy with questions!!

[brandon0133]

ok new here,, i have a 94 aerostar 4.0 xlt extended and i just got it about a month ago,,doing some work on it and wanted to ask a few questions

1>? speedometer, odometer, interior lights and the door ajar light stays on. radio lights up but dont come on either..i checked the fuse box and found 2 blown,,replaced them,,not sure what they went to but it did not fix any of the above problems,,


2>? when shifting from 1-2 gears or from park to overdrive it jerks,,sometimes takes a few seconds before it will shift into that gear. i figured a VSS sensor might be bad but i cant even find it on my van,,most have the VSS sensor right in the tail shaft on the tranny,,mine dont,,it has a closed in hole where one would mount,,,looks like all the others but no place to mount the sensor,,any ideas? my car has a digital odometer,,the rest of the gauges have needles but i guess u would still call it a digi dash right?, i found what i guess to be a ABS speed sensor on the back diff,,,theres not to be a speed sensor on the tranny somewhere,, i opened the cover inside the van and u can see some of the tranny but i dont see a sensor there either...anyone? i have a feeling that the whole speedo not working is not the VSS sensor but i want to replace it and see,,,do these speedos have cables hooking to the back of the speedo cluster? if so might be my problem,,i removed it and installed a new cluster and it still dont work, never seen any cables other then the plugs that hook to the back of the cluster and the park shift cable thing on the bottom of the cluster... other then this problem the van is awsome,,,i bought a new gasket for the rear diff and gear oil for it,,,also tranny pan gasket and filter, fluid,,,going to adjust the bands on the tranny while im down there doing that stuff,, any ideas would be great.. thanks

[Torch]

2>? when shifting from 1-2 gears or from park to overdrive it jerks,,sometimes takes a few seconds before it will shift into that gear. i figured a VSS sensor might be bad but i cant even find it on my van,,most have the VSS sensor right in the tail shaft on the tranny,,mine dont,,it has a closed in hole where one would mount,,,looks like all the others but no place to mount the sensor,,any ideas?

What color is the trans fluid? It should be cherry red..
If it's dark red/brown and smells burnt you may need a rebuild to fix the jerking.
Synchros(spelling?) may be worn as well.

and how old was the person you bought it from?
Jerking in low gears can be caused by putting the transmission under hard acceleration in which it has to down shift. It wears down the shift forks/synchros to the point that it gets hard to get into some gears.

[brandon0133]

it was like a 85 yr old man and woman,,lol,,looks like new fluid,,,the man said he changed the oil and filter along with tranny fluid before he sold it to me,,,he did not change the tranny filter

[Torch]

HAHA. maybe he was an ex-nascar driver. haha. How many miles are on it? It could just be an old part.. especially if it's a 94.

[mark v]

This is the New Member section to say "Hello" and introduce yourself here, please post your questions in the appropriate section.