Tranmission fluid

[deerman2701]

Okay so i recently went to advanced and asked what type of transmission fluid to get for my 1989 ford ranger 2x4 manual transmission with the 2.3l. they looked it up and told me to get ATF with MERCON. so i got a quart of the advance auto DEX III/M fluid. Is this correct???

THere is a tag on my transmission that says E87A-EF.

Is this the right fluid for this transmission? i dont know if i should use gear oil or ATF?


I reference it with this site http://www.drivetrain.com/parts_cata...y_vehicle.html
and the tag gave me this code M5R1.

Then i went to this site http://www.therangerstation.com/tech...nsmission.html

this is the fluid i bought http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/web..._T|GRP2071____

should i fill up the transmission today?
and looked and i think its the Mazda M50D-R1



But im not sure and it says ATF but i just want to make sure with you guys what do you think?


Update: i took the fill cap off and took some fluid out... it smelled and looked like gear oil.


i have no idea what to put in the tranny now. the owners manual says mercon atf, and the tag reads the r1 tranny but the oil doesnt smell or look anything like ATF?


The fluid that was in the tranny now i soaked up with a paper towl to get the real color and it looked yellow. i dunno though i just bought the truck used and have no idea what transmission or what fluid to use.

 

[deerman2701]

i want to change the fluid cause it makes a little grinding noise going into 2nd and 3rd SOMETIMES not always

 

[BRUTUS_T_HOG]

an 89 should have the M5OD... so yes it takes Mercon ATF.

 

[deerman2701]

ya i mean thats what the tag translates to on the transmission but the fluid in the tranny now doesnt look or smell anything like ATF?

the previous owner said it was rebuilt like 80k miles ago. i just dont wanna mess anything up

 

[pcollins]

If they did put gear oil in there, then they are the ones that screwed up. you'll have to drain it, and flush it somehow to get most of the gear oil out, then refill it with mercon. Unless they put special syncrhomesh transmission fluid in there already.

 

[deerman2701]

should i just dump in ATF and see what happens?

 

[BRUTUS_T_HOG]

nothing bad will happen by using the correct fluid...

 

[AllanD]

Does your transmission have a bottom cover?

If you MANUAL transmission has a bottom cover then it takes gear oil.

2.9 powered rangers made from 1988-1992 CAN have the mitsubishi transmission
which uses 80w90 gear oil.

It's also possible that the transmission is NOT the original.

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[pcollins]

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/ManualTransmission.html