Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and babar24
Member
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2009
- Messages
- 17
- Vehicle Year
- 1983
- Transmission
- Manual
85 ford ranger, mazda TK5 transmission (good truck, shitty transmission).
a week ago the shifter came out of place while i was putting it in reverse. i had a wrench in the truck, took the shifter off, and then realized that the guard had fallen off and down into the transmission. the "guard" (think thats the right term) i'm referring to is a poorly designed bolt held in place by a spring that keeps me from throwing it into reverse while driving.
so, needing to get to work, i put the shifter back in place without the guard. it runs and shifts fine now, in fact easier than when the guard was in place. when i got home i took the shifter off and fished around for the bolt and spring, found the spring easy enough with a pair of grabbers. still couldn't find the bolt so i drained the tranny fluid and did some more fishing around. finally i found the bolt wedged behind the driveshaft in the pan below the shifter. i can grab it with a magnet but it only comes out so far and then catches on something. i'd tell you more but i'm doing all my work thru the hole where the shifter sits, so i can't really see much and have very little room to work. where its wedged i can't grab it with pliers or grabbers, and the magnet only pulls it so far until the bolt catches and breaks the connection.
so, in defeat, i put the oil back in and put the shifter back on. i drove it around and for the first mile or two it made a buzzing sound (like the bolt vibrating against the drive shaft) and then stopped buzzing. my assumption is that the bolt fell to the back or the bottom of the pan. from my observations there is a separate pan underneath all the shifter components that separates it from the main gear box. i do not think there is a risk of the bolt finding its way to the main gears and causing trouble there. fingers crossed....
do i keep driving it and not worry about it? is it worth dropping the transmission on a $500 truck? i've thought about taking it to a mechanic but i don't think they'll be able to do much more than i already did with magnets and grabbers. i can't see any kind of access plates on the transmission that would allow me to get to this bolt.
i figure that, if the bolt doesn't find itself sandwiched between the main gears, that if it causes any trouble at all it will be a long-term problem, and if i can get another 6 months out of a $500 truck i'd be willing to call it good.
what do ya'll think? unless anyone presents a brilliant solution i'm just gonna keep on truckin, and hope that bolt fell to the back of the pan and never causes me troubles ever again.
fingers crossed.....
a week ago the shifter came out of place while i was putting it in reverse. i had a wrench in the truck, took the shifter off, and then realized that the guard had fallen off and down into the transmission. the "guard" (think thats the right term) i'm referring to is a poorly designed bolt held in place by a spring that keeps me from throwing it into reverse while driving.
so, needing to get to work, i put the shifter back in place without the guard. it runs and shifts fine now, in fact easier than when the guard was in place. when i got home i took the shifter off and fished around for the bolt and spring, found the spring easy enough with a pair of grabbers. still couldn't find the bolt so i drained the tranny fluid and did some more fishing around. finally i found the bolt wedged behind the driveshaft in the pan below the shifter. i can grab it with a magnet but it only comes out so far and then catches on something. i'd tell you more but i'm doing all my work thru the hole where the shifter sits, so i can't really see much and have very little room to work. where its wedged i can't grab it with pliers or grabbers, and the magnet only pulls it so far until the bolt catches and breaks the connection.
so, in defeat, i put the oil back in and put the shifter back on. i drove it around and for the first mile or two it made a buzzing sound (like the bolt vibrating against the drive shaft) and then stopped buzzing. my assumption is that the bolt fell to the back or the bottom of the pan. from my observations there is a separate pan underneath all the shifter components that separates it from the main gear box. i do not think there is a risk of the bolt finding its way to the main gears and causing trouble there. fingers crossed....
do i keep driving it and not worry about it? is it worth dropping the transmission on a $500 truck? i've thought about taking it to a mechanic but i don't think they'll be able to do much more than i already did with magnets and grabbers. i can't see any kind of access plates on the transmission that would allow me to get to this bolt.
i figure that, if the bolt doesn't find itself sandwiched between the main gears, that if it causes any trouble at all it will be a long-term problem, and if i can get another 6 months out of a $500 truck i'd be willing to call it good.
what do ya'll think? unless anyone presents a brilliant solution i'm just gonna keep on truckin, and hope that bolt fell to the back of the pan and never causes me troubles ever again.
fingers crossed.....
