Transmission stays in 3rd all the time
 

1994 F-150, 351, auto, At 185000 miles, my trans finally quit, I purchased a Ford factory rebuild. when my truck was returned with the new trans., I immediately noticed, that the shift pattern had changed. When I started in drive, the trans went through the gears rapidly, and wanted to stay in 3rd, all the time, even under a load, the only way i could shift, into lower gears, was to do it manually or kick the pedal down to activate the passing gear. I returned the truck to the trans. shop, they worked on it for a long time, even took the trans out again and tested it on their rig. the replaced the computer, and some censors, but nothing helped. The truck was returned to me, and they apologized, for not finding the problem, but they said, it was not a problem with the trans., and I tend to believe them. After driving for another 30000 miles all of a sudden the trans started to shift normally again, everything was normal until I had about 85000 miles, at which time the new transmission gave in. I then had another Ford factory rebuild installed, by a different trans shop, when I recieved it back, the problem had returned, and again the tech. who installed the new one was frustrated as he could not solve the problem, so now I shift manually, most of the time, and it is very frustrating.

If anyone has a solution for this problem, please contact me.

Thanks

Pete

Did the unit come with a new mlps? If thats not the problem I would say you are stuck in second and need to find out what the code is.
The 94 reman unit should have came with a harness modification for the mlps. That needs to be correctly installed.
Alan

I don't know what an mlps is, but when I'm in drive, and shift manually into second the shift is fine, but I can't get there from drive unless i'm going up a very steep hill, or under a lot of load, like carrying a large weight.

Thanks

Pete