M5OD shifter stub length FYI

[Shran]

Most of you will probably never run into this issue, but I did. My buddy and I had four transmissions torn down at once and piles of parts that got assembled into two good ones. One of them happened to be a 2wd 3.0 trans with a speedo gear - so probably 97? or older. We used the top cover because it had good shift forks and upon installation in the vehicle, we discovered that it would shift into 1-2 and 5-R "ok" but 3-4 would go into gear but the shifter would flop way too far towards the seat or dash. Something was clearly wrong and I suspected a broken roll pin that we missed so we pulled it and checked - the problem ended up being a shifter stub that was too short and not engaging any of the gates completely. 3-4 was the worst and it would come almost all the way out.

Fortunately we never had the truck running and just shifted through the gears with the engine off. I looked through our box of parts later and found that we indeed had one long stub that didn't make its way back into the correct top cover - I'm gonna blame him because I was working on my two transmissions while he was tearing his down

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

The earlier R1 has a different notch for the wedge bolt and the bottom is shaped different enough they are not interchangable with a R1HD

 

[scotts90ranger]

I noticed the pinch bolt notch before, but didn't look at the stub length, I think I was just going after the shifter bushings and top seal before I realized that was a $12 kit online... or was that when I broke a shifter alignment pin? I don't remember... I tell ya, it's hard work shifting with a broken pin while in sand dunes!

 

[Shran]

Both of those stubs I have came out of M5R1 non HD transmissions. FWIW the shorter one came from a reman 4.0 trans that was in a '94 Explorer, it has a notch ground out on two sides (very poorly done, angle grinder job.)

In my picture you're seeing the passenger side of both stubs as they were installed in the truck.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Both of those stubs I have came out of M5R1 non HD transmissions. FWIW the shorter one came from a reman 4.0 trans that was in a '94 Explorer, it has a notch ground out on two sides (very poorly done, angle grinder job.)

That is how I put a R1HD shifter on my R2