Beater Ford Ranger...BAD 5th gear in Tranny

[lubechick]

Anyone else experience several replacements of gears (particularily 5th..)in their mitsubishi manual transmission on an 89 or similar Ford Ranger?

 

[Robbie Alexander]

quote:

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Originally posted by lubechick:
Anyone else experience several replacements of gears (particularily 5th..)in their mitsubishi manual transmission on an 89 or similar Ford Ranger?

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What's the problem?
Know a lot of guys over the years with a lot of trucks.
Chuncks of metal? Grinding? ...
I'm no mechanic...but
I know some guys I think they had a 91 Toyota and a 91-92 Ford with Trany and rear-end problems.
They were both around 380-420K. The trany on the Totota was due to some plastic part I think and something had to be replaced. Rear-ends replaced from wear.
Been doing a lot of courier work, so I've seen a lot of trucks

 

[Mitch]

I have rebuilt 3 ranger 5 speeds in the last few years. The common factor in all was a new mainshaft because of wear.My buddy at the trans shop uses 20/50 wt motor oil instead of 85-90 GL5 and he claims success on these transmissions.In my 81 Toyota 4X4 with the 5 speed I rebuilt it at 103,000 miles. I put in 20/50 castrol and it now has 237,000 miles with no noise.

 

[Robbie Alexander]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mitch:
*-*-*-*.In my 81 Toyota 4X4 with the 5 speed I rebuilt it at 103,000 miles. I put in 20/50 castrol and it now has 237,000 miles with no noise.

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All the couriers I have known, that take care of their trucks usually get rid of them where I have been (300-360K). they don't want to replace things and sell them and get new ones.
The guys that keep them a lot replace things like Tran and rear between 380-420K. Right now My rear is Loose, I'm worried. They just don't make them as good as before.
Most guys I have known can (use to get 7-900K+)
and I have done this but I don't know of anything past 91 that got over the high 700's without a replacement or major work regardless of oil changes... sure they lasted longer but still failed... makes me sad :-[
Sometimes a GL-4 is better if it is in the specs IMHO. Gotta play around.
IMO if you start out on dino and start to have problems, don't bother with SYN. Either choose to use it when new or don't.
The last few months I bumped into maybe a dozen guys with Toyota/Ford/Nissan and all but 1 had replaced the rear or tranny or both, there was only one that has over 660K++ that had the original and that was a Toyota, the rest were in the low 400 to mid 500's one in the high 500's from what my memory recalls. And me with a loose rear am in the 388K mark with original tranny and rear with dino fluids...
What I did was try a different approach:
since I knew they were not lasting as long,
the first 100K I changed the fluids like crazy
(maybe I should have keept it up but I did not plan on keeping the truck past 4-5-maybe-600K - so I did not try any better)then went into REAL extedned drains with no oil testing... although I did change my tranny about 100K twice, the rear I left of about I recall 240K (over 200K)... hence probably the problem.

 

[lubechick]

Thanks for the info. Once the tranny is rebuilt once again, I'll try a lighter oil. OR...stay out of 5th gear and pay the extra on gas

 

[Whimsey]

lubechick,
I think you might have a Mazda manual tranny in your Ranger. I had an '89 F-150 with the Mazda 5 speed manual tranny and it required Mercon ATF. I believe Ford uses Mazda manual trannies. I also have a 2002 F-150 with the Mazda 5 speed manual tranny and it requires Mercon ATF fluid. I swapped Schaeffer's Dexron III/Mercon Supreme for the stock fluid and it seemed to help with the shifting quality in my 2002 truck. Though I have to admit that with Ford's Mercon my 1989 F-150 it shifted fine. Except of course for the weak clutch slave cylinder which kept leaking even after replacements.

Whimsey