Overdrive out

Hey. I have an '87 signature and It's been having some trouble shifting into 4th for quite a while now. Well anyway I took it on a road trip the other day and now it almost never shifts into 4th. I'm thinking that I probably need a rebuild, or replacement on transmission. Could it be anything cheaper than a total rebuild, or should I just get a used transmission put in. Cost is a very major factor here. Thanks.

-Joe

I had this problem with my 91 TC. We took it to a transmission shop and they told us that is was a plastic piece in the transmission. He said it was due to the fact that ford put the plastic piece in the transmission instead of a metal piece. I can not think of this pieces name but it was only a 90 dollar fix for us.

I have a 91 Grand Marquis that did the same type of thing. It turned out that the trans kickdown cable had a buildup of rust, I cleaned the ball the cable attaches to at the throttlebody and the trans and that solved the problem.