Hello to everyone. I am a first time Ranger owner. Not on purpose by by a great stroke of luck. One fellow traveling thru our area had bad luck with the tranny going out on his 1995 Ranger XLT 2wd 4.0 engine. It only has 127000 miles on it, comes from North Carolina (main body rust free). He broke down just down the road from where my son-in-law is a mechanic and when all was said and done, the fellow got money for a bus ticket and food and went on his way. I happened to stop in to see the son-in-law and ended up buying a Ranger.
I feel bad for the fellow.
I am a retired 63 yr old single (with a beagle) ol fart that attempts to fix everything myself. There isn't much I haven't stuck my fingers in. I am always busy with projects and now I have a Ranger project. I truely value others advice and instruction, that's the reason I joined this group. Knowledge is a valuable thing and I like to learn.

 

Hi,

'95 Ranger either had 5-speed M5OD-R1 manual transmission or a 4-speed 4R55E automatic

M5OD rarely had problems, running them low on fluid was usual cause of failure.

4R55E was a good transmission but like all automatics when there is a problem, especially when out of town, you are looking at a rebuild so $1,500+ which can be prohibitive on 20 year old vehicles which have a low value.

The 4.0l OHV engine was used in Rangers from 1990 to 2000, these were very reliable engines, change the oil and drive them.
They do have a weak point in the head castings, between the valve seats, if the engine is over heated a head will crack there, no maybe, so simple solution is to not overheat them, lol.
If hose should break or coolant runs low from a leak.........STOP driving, pull over, DO NOT try to make it home or anywhere else.
Let it cool down then drive it a bit, let it cool down and then drive it a bit, to get home or ??
Heads are not cheap and neither is replacing head gaskets, so a broken $10 hose could end up costing you hundreds of dollars if you let engine over heat.
If it takes you 3 hours to get home and it saves you $600 you just made $200/hour, not bad

 

Thank you Ron for the info. I think someone had this tranny off at one time because there was a rebuilt converter in it that looked pretty new. That maybe didn't fix the problem. What ever the case, I have it now and am pleased cause the engine seems strong and it isn't a rust bucket. I'm doing a bit of cosmetic interior replacement cause previous owners were a bit tough on it.