Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and 
Shran
Junk Collector
TRS Forum Moderator
Supporting Member
Article Contributor
Solid Axle Swap
Truck of Month
Just for informational purposes, I am posting some pictures of an M5OD transmission that I'm rebuilding for an '88 Ranger.
This transmission came out of a '90 Ranger and was purchased as a core. I was told that it would not shift out of 5th/reverse after the owner got it stuck in either mud/snow and just generally abused it. I am fixing it so that I will have a spare.
First things first: the obvious, the shifter bushing was completely gone and the pins showed significant wear. I found pieces of the missing shifter bushings throughout the transmission. The shifter was so sloppy that the 5th/reverse shift rail had been moved into the 5th gear position, but the shifter itself was actually in Neutral (between 1-2 and 3-4 rails.)
This illustrates what was left of the shifter bushing and rubber top cover:
This is a brand new shifter bushing set with new pins:
Once the transmission was torn down, it became obvious that there were other issues present as well. Namely, the 5th/reverse gear slider, synchro, reverse gear itself, and shifter fork all showed a lot of wear and neglect.
This is what the reverse cluster looks like - it is located in the tailhousing section of the transmission. Note that 5th gear is not pictured and is located under these parts:
The slider and synchro - these didn't look bad at first but on closer inspection I found that the slider had worn so much that it actually would not engage the reverse gear at all. It would come close but would ratchet against the reverse gear teeth, I'm sure you can imagine the grinding this made...note how the teeth are worn a lot more on one side, and how the synchro teeth are much smaller than they should be:
The reverse gear showed the same wear pattern on one side of the teeth:
Finally, the shift fork. This piece shows extreme wear and would explain why it often feels like you have to really jam these things into reverse to make it engage...half the fork is worn away, leading to slop in the slider. Pictured is a new(er) fork, note the nubs on the tips and the circle worn into the old fork:
So the moral of the story here is: replace your shifter bushings, if there is any slop!!!! They are $12! I think this transmission would have been in far better shape if this had been done (and not abused.)
This transmission came out of a '90 Ranger and was purchased as a core. I was told that it would not shift out of 5th/reverse after the owner got it stuck in either mud/snow and just generally abused it. I am fixing it so that I will have a spare.
First things first: the obvious, the shifter bushing was completely gone and the pins showed significant wear. I found pieces of the missing shifter bushings throughout the transmission. The shifter was so sloppy that the 5th/reverse shift rail had been moved into the 5th gear position, but the shifter itself was actually in Neutral (between 1-2 and 3-4 rails.)
This illustrates what was left of the shifter bushing and rubber top cover:
This is a brand new shifter bushing set with new pins:
Once the transmission was torn down, it became obvious that there were other issues present as well. Namely, the 5th/reverse gear slider, synchro, reverse gear itself, and shifter fork all showed a lot of wear and neglect.
This is what the reverse cluster looks like - it is located in the tailhousing section of the transmission. Note that 5th gear is not pictured and is located under these parts:
The slider and synchro - these didn't look bad at first but on closer inspection I found that the slider had worn so much that it actually would not engage the reverse gear at all. It would come close but would ratchet against the reverse gear teeth, I'm sure you can imagine the grinding this made...note how the teeth are worn a lot more on one side, and how the synchro teeth are much smaller than they should be:
The reverse gear showed the same wear pattern on one side of the teeth:
Finally, the shift fork. This piece shows extreme wear and would explain why it often feels like you have to really jam these things into reverse to make it engage...half the fork is worn away, leading to slop in the slider. Pictured is a new(er) fork, note the nubs on the tips and the circle worn into the old fork:
So the moral of the story here is: replace your shifter bushings, if there is any slop!!!! They are $12! I think this transmission would have been in far better shape if this had been done (and not abused.)
