1990 2WD M50D-R1 - 5th and Reverse shot- need to replace- sources?

[geocrasher]

Hi all,

I'm helping a friend with his 1990 2wd Ranger with the 2.3L fuel injected engine. I checked the Transmission code on the door tag, its the M code, Mazda M50D-R1 from what I can tell on this site.

The truck is in decent shape, only has 95K miles, but the transmission is fairly shot. Fifth and Reverse are gone. The rest are noisy and the transmission gets hot on longer drives, enough to be noticeable and starts whining. He drives it around town for now.

So, we have been looking at parts yards locally (Reno NV area) and they are asking if its a 1, 2 or 3 wire transmission? Not sure how to answer on that. Also, I'm a bit concerned about putting some unknown used transmission in his truck, as I don't want him to have the same issue a few thousand miles down the road.

Are there any known good sources of these? Should he just have his rebuilt? Thanks for any and all help, even pointers on what to search for.

For background, I know how to replace transmissions etc, having done a few clutches and what not. Fairly confident I can do this job, just need to find the trans. Thanks

 

[tempforce]

get a exchange transmission. it should be reconditioned to standards (the standards of the rebuilder)… less work to get the truck running. use truck info including it's serial number and head to a auto parts store or major transmission shop..

be sure to add a transmission cooler in front of the radiator after installing the rebuilt transmission to help make it last...

 

[pcollins]

be sure to add a transmission cooler in front of the radiator after installing the rebuilt transmission to help make it last...

Its a manual transmission. No tranny cooler. Not on the rangers anyways.