Need help figuring out whats going on with my Ranger

[93Red_Ranger_]

Hey guys,
So i've had my ranger for about 2 months now, bought it from an older gentleman in Lehigh Valley. So i know it was babied. Just not sure if it was maintained. Has barely any rust, brand new paint, clean cloth bucket seats, ect. I've replaced main brake line, no biggie. Just the other day i was waiting at an intersection to pull out onto a main road an i put it into neutral and let out the clutch and it stalled out. Started it back up, put in N and same thing. Than i try reversing out of the way and it wouldnt move. So i pushed it into the pizza shop parking lot and went to put in gear and wont go into gear. Not 1st, 2nd, went into 3rd but barely, no 4th, or 5th. Reverse would go in but id give it gas and let out clutch and it didnt want to move. Everyone that i've spoken to said its the throw out bearing. I also heard that it could just be the pin that goes thru all the gears but im not sure. I just want more opinions so i get the right part and get my baby back on the road. With no truck, there's no income. I hope you guys can help, i need my truck back on the road ASAP!

Thanks,
Mike

 

[RonD]

Probably not throw out bearing because it reads like your clutch is working fine.

It reads like your transmission isn't shifting correctly, gears are out of sync for some reason.
Not sure it can be fixed in the vehicle, you may be able to pull the shifter and transmission's top cover to work on it, realign the shift forks, but they may be worn and it will repeat the same thing out on the road somewhere.

You should have the M50D-R1 trans
http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/ManualTransmission.html

If the shifter had/has a lot of play in it then you might just need to replace the bushings.
http://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/winter2007/shifterbushings.htm

Found a video of replacement as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9vow60baZo

Because your tranny is not in the correct gear, from what you have said, once you get the shifter out you will have to manually change the the gears with a screwdriver to get tranny into true Neutral, and then install the new bushings and shifter.
You may want to jack up the rear wheels so you can rotate them to free up gears to align Neutral back up, I wouldn't use the engine.

This might not be the problem but it is FREE to look

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I had something similar happen to my f-150 w/m5od-r2. Coming off the freeway it locked up in third gear and was impossible to shift. Not quite the same trans but I did the same as Ron suggested and removed the top cover. I then made everything line up inside so that the left side was a mirror image of the right side, and the top half mirrors the bottom half. At the time I went to a trans shop to get a gasket and asked about my trans. He said the same as Ron in that stuff was wearing out. Aligning everything fixed the shifting problem for a few months until catastrophic failure. I then replaced the trans with another. AMA or other insurance plan may be a good idea as a tow bill gets real expensive with distance.
Hope you have better luck.

Richard

 

[doorgunner]

My '55 Ford did the same thing when I was a kid.....something came loose in manual transmission...a couple gears got mis-aligned at a traffic light.....engine would lug down & die when I let the clutch out...my uncle was able to repair the bad fork & re-align the gears.

If it had happened while shifting to 2nd or third the trans would have sploded!

 

[straycat]

You need to take it to a shop you know and have it looked at. Asking questions about this type of issues does not always work out. It could be a simple fix or a big expence.

 

[PanamaExpat]

It slipped into two gears at the same time. You do the same thing to lock the shafts when you tighten or loosen the big nuts on the backs of the shafts to rebuild the trans. Probably the bushings and cap for your shifter are worn out. They are less than $13 from RockAuto. DORMAN Part # 917551

If that fixes it look how much money you save by not dropping the trans.

 

[Andy D]

Chevvy 3 on the trees used to hang up the linkage. Reseting was easy if you knew the trick. Both rods had to be in the middle spot. Find the middle of both legs and hope the shift forks are still OK, says someone who hasn't done this on anything built after 1967

 

[93Red_Ranger_]

Thanks everyone for all the feedback. Im going to have to work on it tomorrow.
Ron im going to look into those links and take the boot and shifter off. That was a big help. I appreciate it alot !