transmission slips

I have a 1994 ford ranger with an a4ld transmission, the forward gears work fine, but the reverse slips,sometimes cannot backup at all,the fluid level is ok,what do you think,do i need new bands.
thanks nick

sounds like the same problem that happen to our 1994 ford aerostar we had at one time. it fist started out with the reverse slipping and not wanting to go at all and then first gear went out of it.? not sure what to do. we sold it before any other problems occured! lmao :)

Does it sound like anything is grinding, or is it just revving with no response?

I had a 1990 5.0 Mustang with an AT. When it shifted to fourth gear, I got no response, it just revved a lot. I took it in to a transmission shop, they said it needed to be rebuilt. Couple months and $1500 later, I had the problem again. Turns out there's this plastic washer/bracket on the throttle cable that was broken. I don't know if that would have anything to do with your reverse gear though.

What do you mean by washer/bracket on the throttle cable? I have a 96 ford taurus GL 3.0L Vulcan engine with auto transmission. Lots of transmission problems maybe? The car revs alot but doesn't seem to put the power to the ground, doesn't pull as it used to either. From time to time also, it seems like it has a problem shifting into gear. It sorta jumps then stops drastically when i press on gas (this happens rather rarely but it happens). The car seems to have become really lazy but up on the hill it has the power but acceleration is a bit lazy as of late. Is there anything that can be replaced since I have 208,000 on the engine, cables, spark plugs (last changed before 50,000 bosch with 3 contacts), etc...

When the A4LD slips in reverse and not in forward it means that the Overdrive/Reverse band is not engageing by the Servo located in the Trans oil pan. The band most likely just slipped out of the way. sometimes u can fix this buy pulling the transmission pan and unbolting the servo plate pulling the servo. then stick a screw driver and try to reposition the band. if that doesn't work you have to pull the transmission and pull it apart to reach the band to reposition it in the groves