Tranny trouble

[wisconsinranger02]

Hey all you experts, I need some advice, or confirmation with a transmission problem. First, some history:

My ride is a 2002 Ranger, FX4, loaded, manual 5 speed and transfer case. I average 23K miles per year, all highway. I usually get 95K miles per set of tires. The clutch slave cyl died at 85K, replaced. I have some of the typical probs - rusted Ebrake cable, pass door sensor (someone PLEASE tell me what wire it is so I can ground it and MAKE IT STOP!), bad ABS sensor (never liked them anyway), and recently the blower motor resistor. Good news? I've had a tree (18" in dia) fall on the A pillar and didn't even crack the windshield. No interior fading, paint is perfect, and truck runs great - not bad for 181,000 miles.

OK, last week I noticed a "rotational" vibration in the gearshift, like you could feel the second gear moving. Shortly after that, it got hard to mesh - would grind anywhere about 15 mph. Two days ago, it stopped meshing completely if I was rolling, and about the same time, when it WAS in second, average to hard acceleration produced a severe vibration/chatter/bucking - like the second gear sprocket (?) was slipping on the shaft....since then I have stopped using second, going from 1st to 3rd. All the other gears are fine, no problems, and clutch action is firm with no excess play, and no unusual noises.

I know it's going to be a tranny shop stop, but I would like to know what to expect...what did I break or wear out?

Thanks for the help - and BTW, for you guys that don't buy the tree tale...here's proof - 12/22/2006:

Doug

 

[Mirage]

More than likely the bearing cage for second gear is damaged. Whick probably means it will have worn out the shaft that second gear rides on. If it's going to the tranny shop (but you could do this yourself and save some $$$) might as well have the whole thing rebuilt. New syncros, bearings, shafts (where needed), gears, etc.

 

[Explorin94]

The bearing cage Mirage is refering to is what the gear rides on of the mainshaft. If you have no clue with what you are doing don't attempt it,take it somewhere and have it done.
There is a bearing on the input shaft, a pocket bearing between the input and mainshaft, and a bearing at the end of the gear cluster of the main shaft. The counter shaft has a bearing at each end. More than likely the pocket bearing is wore out and causing the main shaft to droop and mesh the gears farther together between the mainshaft and the counter shaft. There should be a niose in every forward gear other than 4th which is a 1 to 1 between the engine and transmission.
Have a transmission shop look at it and have them rebuild what you have or put a rebuilt one in. Reason being if a junkyard transmission is bought you could have the same proble that you currently have with the original transmission now.
As for your door sensor....spray the locking mechanism with some WD40 and get the swithch to loosen up. Then after that spray some white litium grease in it and that should be good.

 

[wisconsinranger02]

Well, I know virtually nothing about transmissions, just a bunch of gears in a box to me, so I 'ain't touching it. Rebuild? Ouch, sounds expensive.....

As for the door - tried that. The plastic locking cam in the door (that has the small metal contact that closes the circut when latched), doesn't quite close far enough. It's such a small miss that a bump in the road, or a gust of wind will break contact and ding the chime. I've tried adding some metal to the door frame "U" latch, but that didn't work, and frrankly I'm tired of messing with it. I'd rather just find the wire, ground it so the computer thinks the door is always closed, and put my dome light bulbs back in!