Which speedo gear

[Kim]

...do I need?

The previous owner of my truck had swapped the original (according to door sticker code) 7.5" 3.73 axle for an 8.8" 3.08 axle and I want the original gear ratio back. No idea if he changed the speedo gear also, and the speedometer seems to read weird, so I need to be able to ID the one it has in it currently and see if it's the right one.

It's the '98 XLT, 2.5L with the 5 spd manual btw and thanks in advance.

 

[RonD]

Ranger speedometers were electronic from 1995 and up, so no gears and no speedo cable

1998-2000 Rangers used the ABS rear axle speed sensor, this signal went to the ABS(anti-lock brake) module, this module can be programmed for "rotations per mile", so it was programmed at the factory for rotations per mile for the stock tire size.
In this type of setup the speed sensor(VSS) is reading the ring gear rotations, so axle ratio change wouldn't matter to speedo.
Only tire diameter changes would matter.
After the correction the ABS module sends signal out to the computer, the speedo/odo, and the cruise control.

PDF here kind of explains what happens: https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckbbas/non-html/2003/bb_pdf/206.pdf

So if only the axle ratio was changed then something else is wrong with speedometer

 

[Kim]

RonD, thank you for the info. That's actually the answer I was kind of hoping to hear.