90 Ranger 4cyl. rear wheels locked up

[kbasham]

I have a 1990 ford ranger and was driving it the other day and all of the sudden the rear wheels locked up. Then it was hard to get out of gear. Finally got it in neutral and coasted home. Luckily I was only about 1/2 mile from home. The tranny had been making a whining noise and just wonder if that was related. I can now get it in gear and driving about 100 yards and it will do it again. Can someone please help me?
Thanks

 

[BeaterMan]

Id drain the trans fluid and maybe pull the shifter cover and see if you can see any damage inside seeing you said it had been whinning. So when you put it in neutral the vehicle coasts fine? If that is true then i'd suspect a tranny failure. It couldn't hurt to pull the diff cover aswell and make sure nothing got distroyed in the process of your adventure.

 

[kx1254real]

I had a tranny go out in mine. Try all the gears and see if some of them still work alright. If your truck is an automatic it sounds like you had second go out or something along those lines. A newish tranny from a junkyard could run anywhere from $150 - 400, or a rebuild from a shop could get really expensive but get it done right. It still runs good while it's in neutral correct? The truck keeps running after it locks up?