99 M5OD Locked in 4th

[rneal55555]

My transmission locked it self in 4th gear. I was pulling a long hill and shifted from 5th into 4th to maintain speed. After I crested the hill when I tried to shift back into 5th the shifter was very stiff coming out of 4th but did move some, it appears in the neutral position or nearly so, however there is not play at all in the lever and it refuses to move anywhere no matter what I do.

The transmission is still in fourth gear I managed to drive it home in 4th about 130 miles.

My thought is to just by a used transmission for $300-$400 and swap it out.

I'm wondering though if this is something that happens and if there is a fairly easy fix without a complete transmission tear down and a significant cost savings for parts.

The truck has about 170,000 miles on it with the original clutch I've been wondering how much longer it could last, guess I'm not gonna find out because no way is that transmission coming out without a new clutch kit going in.

 

[rneal55555]

Where I'm at, I talked to a friend whose step son has a high mileage Ranger with an M5OD and it did basically the same thing. He had it towed into a dealer(I think) and they replaced the sifter bushings and it has been ok since. So I decided to replace them in mine and see what it got me. I found an article in the tech library

http://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/winter2007/shifterbushings.htm

As mine was in 4th when I started I had to use a screw driver ti get it into neutral after the shifter ball was removed. Put it back together and so far during a short test drive it shifts fine,
I'll let it go a while and post a follow after a more thorough testing

 

[Jspafford]

Good deal..

 

[rneal55555]

Just a follow up, so far so good probably driven 400 or so miles and no shifting issues.