93 Ranger won\'t move when shifted into 3rd or 4th gear

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October 20, 2016 at 9:18 pm #7650

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I recently bought a 93 2.3 liter Ford Ranger. It has a manual transmission. It has new flywheel, pressure plate, clutch kit, slave cylinder and release bearing. I have bench bled it a couple different times. I have also replaced shifter bushing kit, yet I still cannot get it to move in 3rd gear and fourth gear acts the same alot of the times. Can anyone think of anything else I can try.

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October 22, 2016 at 5:57 pm #7661

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This may seem like a simple thing to overlook, but, you have told me you have replaced most of the transmission but I don’t see anything about the shift cable. Did you check the cable inside the runner to make sure it is just too stretched out to enable the dogs to catch in third and fourth.

If the cable is stretched too far it will bind so that in the lower gears it may be fine but when you are shifting into third and fourth the cable starts to bind because it is just a tad too long.

Why might it be happening with all the work you have done? It’s simple! Because you can’t see easily inside the cable runner to look at the shifter wire (it’s about a number 14 multiple strand steel cable), you can’t see that it might have stretched. However, the way it is acting tells me it is.

If you know how to do it, I would suggest going into the shift console, finding the adjustment nut — usually a knurled passthrough-style nut — loosening it a tad and taking some of the slack out of it. You will need two pliers to take care of this. Place one at the nut and a second just in back of it and apply pressure to the outboard pliers. Once the cable begins to slide out, pull it until all of the slack has gone out of the cable — it should only be a matter of inches — and then clamp the cable tightly at the nut so it won’t slide back in. Finally, tighten the adjustment nut finger-tight to complete the procedure.

I think this should cure your problem.

Let me know if this fixes the problem. I’d like to find out.

October 24, 2016 at 1:38 am #7662

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I will have to try that. Not really sure how to access the shifter console but I can figure it out. Thanks for the response. I will let you know shortly

October 24, 2016 at 1:46 am #7663

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I was just looking through my Haynes manual. There is no mention of a shift cable with the 5spd transmission

October 24, 2016 at 3:29 pm #7664

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I would check again. Unless the five-speed is connected physically by the linkage, there is usually a shift cable and adjustment. If not, the problem could be in the dogs that are released and then take up again when you shift. I’ll research it a bit myself and see what we both come up with.

October 24, 2016 at 3:36 pm #7665

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I was in the garage last night shifting throughout the gears and it was going into the 3rd and 4th everytime. I would check it by trying to move the truck myself physically and it wouldn’t. I got excited and decided to go and take it for a spin. I thought it was fixed. This was after gravity bleeding the slave by the way. I go to drive it and once again go to shift into 3rd gear and once again NOTHING! On top of that I was forced to leave my truck down the road because the pushrod ended up breaking somehow along the way. I’m about fed up with it at this point

October 29, 2016 at 6:22 pm #7681

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I hate to say this as I like that version of the Ranger myself (it was cool), but, maybe it’s time for a newer pickup. My own gut feeling is that the dogs that are supposed to mesh with each gear are somehow coming up short, most likely because of wear. With that said, you may have trouble finding the parts you need to fix things.

Dealerships and major shops don’t keep car parts on hand after 20 years. You have to go to a specialty supplier and they tend to be very expensive. And, I do know that you have done lots of work yourself, which is great, but, at this point, I suspect that some of the parts you have installed aren’t correct and they may have worsened the problems you are having. The problems could be at the point where it just doesn’t make any more sense to try to fix this. I would suggest cutting your losses on this and finding a newer, less burdensome replacement.
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