Hey guys I've got a big problem with the tranny in my older Ranger. Its a 2WD 88 model, with the 2.0 engine and the 5-speed manual. Well the other day I was messing around and shifting with no cluch (hard) when I went from 2nd to 3rd the shift went all the way up and the **** almost hit the dash. The truck as stuck in neutral so I was able to pull over, the shift was stuck tight in place and after i yanked on it for a while i was able to move it down a bit and now it seems to be stuck in (I think) 4th gear. I pulled it home because i didnt want to destroy the clutch trying to get home. The shifter can be moved a little now but now much and its still closer to the dash than it should be. I tried to get it out of 4th but I had no luck. Does the transmission have internal damage or is there something wrong with the shift linkage maybe? It did this once before a few years ago but i was able to pull the shifter away from the dash and then everything was fine. Thanks a lot for any help you guys can give me. I wish I would just learn to take it easy on the old Ranger, if I would, none of this would have happened.

 

Sounds like possibly bad shift rails(if you have those in that vintage of ranger). I pulled mine out by taking off the top inspection cover which contains the rails, and i lubed them up...made them all smooth. I don't exactly know what trans style you have...but on my M5OD-R1HD, when i picked it up from the junkyard, it was stuck in 4th gear or 2nd. I pull off the inspection plate/shift rail holder from the top of the trans. I then put all the sincros in neutral, put the shifter in almost neutral, then put the plate back on and bolted it up. Did the charm..perfect. Of course.....the trans was out of the truck when the work was done to it.

Also....sounds like you were forcing the stick into gears...very bad...............when shifting clutchless, you much match the engine rpm to the drive train rpm...it's VERY easy to do if you know how to do it....can even downshift and everything. That's how i made my slave cyl last one more week....lol.

 

Thanks for the info man, yeah i wasnt matching the rpm like i usually do if im not clutching. (I was trying to make my 2.0 accelerate a little faster lol). Hopefully I'll get it fixed tommorrow. It might be tough with the trans still in but we'll see.

 

Well I was able to get it fixed today. Turned out it was some linkage/rails that had gotten fubared. Everything is good now and it seems to shift nicer than before.

 

well thats good. does your truck have external shift linkage? or is it internal like mine?

 

It is internal, but the part on mine that was messed up was easy to acess from the top after the shift was removed, luckily.

 

What happens if you forget to put the tranny in neutral before slipping the shifter up & out? I have the M5OD R1. I got a nice loud, solid, spring loaded sounding CLACK when I lifted my shifter. Now it's stuck in 1st or 2nd & won't budge. I'm hoping it's a simple alignment issue, but what do I move to align with what?
I discovered this after the clutch job from hell. 1993XL 2.3L