So my 2004 lariat 4x4 is taking a good long second to actually engage into reverse once I shift it. Drive is immediate. Is this normal? Or is my tranny dying...

 

Around 1 second is normal for the most part. If it gets any longer when it gets cold (below or near freezing) that could indicate some issues developing, but if it still engages I wouldn't worry about it at all.

 

Actually our trucks have a known issue with premature wear on the reverse band. One of tr symptoms is slow engagement into reverse.

It may not get a lot worse but then again it might.

My second symptom was slipping in reverse in 4 wheel drive under heavy load. Not long after that it declined rapidly and an entire rebuild was necessary.

If caught early then just the band and some gaskets can be changed. Still costly as the trans needs to be removed to do the work. However it saves a lot over a complete rebuild as I needed

 

Wow thanks dirt tracker. Now that you mention that I was pulling a jeep the other day in reverse 4wd and had an issue seemed a little slippy and then the trans warning light was on saying there was an issue and it went into a limp mode. I ran the codes on my tuner and it said shaft speed sensor wasn't getting a signal. I figured it was just a bad sensor for the 4wd because I cleared the codes and haven't had a problem since. I tried 4wd the other day and got no codes but maybe I should try it in reverse, I also wasn't under load.

 

The codes I got were p0720 p0722 and p2106

 

I'm dealing with the same thing. I lost reverse in 4hi the other night. Truck has had slow engagement and clunk into reverse since I bought it. Never got any codes though. Dirt tracker has great advice. I think I am going to take it to aamco today. Free diagnoses so why not? If I do I'll let you know what they say.

 

Thanks boss!

Any benefit in a friction additive anyone?

 

Just picked up truck from aamco. They say all is good with tranny.

The issue of losing reverse ended up being a transfer case issue. I said all of this in my thread, but I'll repeat to you to see if you have same issue. I was in 4hi for half a mile, came to the end of the trail and put it in reverse but couldn't go anywhere until I put it in 2wd and reverse. When I would rev my engine, my tachometer would move, of course, but so did my speedo. That key part of info apparently says this: it says that the output shaft of the transmission is spinning, saying that the transmission is in reverse. The not catching reverse issue then lies in the transfer case. I don't know exactly what, and I could be wrong, but that's what I was told, and I tend to agree with that.

Hope that makes sense. Let me know if I need to explain anything more.

Anyone else please tell me if I was misinformed on something.

 

Thanks for the good info. I think my issue is different because when my trans had the issue after using 4hi in reverse when I was driving forward again my speedo wasn't working at all and then I reset the codes and it was fine