O/D problem 98 ford 3.8 eng

98 ford 3.8 engine 114,000 miles. i thought the tranny was going because of the high revs i was getting and no shifting, now its seems to be stuck in 1 gear, but what i noticed is that when i press the O/D button it does nothing which leads me to believe that the van is stuck in Overdrive. is this a switch i can get and replace, fuses, or is this an internal job. im driving 35mph at 4000 rpms, even when i am parked and rev up the engine the rpms go past 4000 which tells me there is something wrong. please advise. there is no CEL on and the O/D is not blinking or anything

i ran codes on the van this afternoon, none, so i had the tech try to run the setup for the van, i did not even run, it stopped and gave code P1705, which said the vehicle was not in park or neutral. I am in the Military so we have Hobby shops to help us and we get our codes run for $10.00. They were not able to help me because they had no clue. i drove the van to a shop very slowly 30mph at 4000 rpms. they told me to come back in the morning. The auto mechanic did say something about the shift colum possibly being the problem, but as of now the vehicle will not shift gears. any advice or suggestions

after calming down and reading the forum, i came across other peoples tranny problems. i went ahead and replace the neutral safety switch and behold teh van runs again and shifts. it still has the occassional small kicks while shifting but at least it shifts. now i am begining to think that my PCM is not working properly because this is the second item to fail without throwing a CEL. the last problem i had last week was the DPFE and there was no CEL. at this point i am inclined to replace every sensor. i have not replaced the TPS or the CPSynchro. Thanks to this forum i am getting things done

On the top of the transmission....there is a switch....called by 2 names...."Neutral switch" and "range sensor". This connects to the shift mechanisim that you move when you select gears.....and tells the transmission computer what gear you have selected. It is a common fail item. It must be properly aligned when installed....so when you select Park...you are in park.....etc.
Also, the start function goes through this switch....which may help give it the name of "neutral switch"....as this is where it enables /disables the start function....as in....start only in "N" or "P".

Give it some time to relearn the shift points....it should relearn in a fairly short period of time.

Thanks wiswind for the reply, i just slapped it in, didnt align it or anything. what tool do i need to align it. also what about the CEL, do i have a problem with it not telling me that i have failed parts. i did drive the van in 1st gear for about 7 miles

If it is working...and you can clear the codes...you are fine. You can clear the codes by removing a battery cable....leave it disconnected for about 5 minutes......and then reconnect.
If the CEL does not come back on with a code for the "neutral" switch....then I would not worry about it. I have not replaced the switch myself.....but did read that it needed to be properly aligned when installed. I would guess if you can start the car....and it shifts through the gears...and does not give a CEL.....that you have it correctly installed.

If you ran high RPMs for very long on your 7 mile drive....you might change the tranny fluid....in case it got hot.

thanks wiswind, i will replace the tranny fluid tomorrow with mercon V. i know i have read alot about where to buy fluids-ford dealer or OEM stores. i guess as long as its Mercon V it should be alright.

Well i replaced the tranny fluid, it looked fine, nothing fell out of the transmission. after that i drove it for about 15 miles and the CEL came back on, i had unplugged the car battery for half an hour to reset my code. i betcha anything it will be P0340, if it is i will replace the CPSynchro tomorrow

crazymoon
If your trans range switch is similar to my '99's .. an alignment mark is provided on the switch body itself. No extra tool is required.

12ounce, i didnt see any alignment mark on the switch, just slapped it in. the CEL light is off now but i did run it by a reader and it was the P0340, i had just replaced that about 2 months ago. i bought it from autozone. the old sensor didnt look that bad and it wasnt broken. do you guys thinbk it could have failed again? i am reluctant to fiddle with the synchronizer just because of the location. should i replace the sensor again and buy from a different store or just get the synchronizer

P0340 has to do with the camshaft position sensor (or more likely a harness issue with the camshaft pos sensor). Are you saying you have recently replaced the camshaft pos sensor .. and you have recently replaced the tranny range switch?

I would doubt the camshaft pos sensor is failing that quickly ... give the harness and connector a very close inspection.

12ounce, thats exactly what i have done. the neutral safety switch was replaced 2 days ago, and the camshaft position sensor about 2 months ago. the DPFE was last week. i have not replaced the Camshaft position synchronizer because i have spent alot of money on replacing other parts on this van. i wouldnt know where to start on the wiring harness. any pointers

Sorry, no pointers of consequence. I have a diagram for the '99 ... but the '98 is quite different.

If you could obtain a diagram for the '98, you could then check the harness end-to-end for continuity... from the connector to the PCM.

Had to replace the cam sensor (3 times) on my niece's 96 T-bird, 3.8. The 3.8 seems to look exactly like my 97 windstar 3.8. Got the switch from autozone the first 2 times. They only lasted about 2 months. Replaced the third time with one from Ford. It is lasting fine (10 months).

well mine has lasted ok, i just changed out the camshaft position synchronizer and the van is running fine. i may end up buying my parts from Orileys from now on though.

BTW - the tranny shop that replaced my range selector switch referred to as the Prindle switch. Just think of PRNDL on your shift column as an acronym and pronounce it.

The tranny shop used on OBD tool to monitor the PCM and the PCM was always telling the transmission to be in 2nd gear, no matter where the gearshift actually was. The problem was highly intermittent for a couple of weeks, sometimes would disappear for a couple of days. But, it finally got to where it was always failing.