I have a 94 ranger 5 speed that started to whine in all gears but 4th about 6 months ago. Didn’t seem to bother the power so I ignored it. Last night while driving home I was in 5 th and all of a sudden I heard a pop and lost power like it had popped out of gear. I ended up getting it into 4th for a minute or so just enough to get in the driveway. Now it seems like it’s in neutral but when I take my foot off the clutch it dies. Just had my brother over to pull it to the shop and it clanked the whole time while rolling like it was still in gear. Didn’t seem to care if I had the clutch pedal depressed or not. What could this be? I’m willing to pull the tranny but figured I’d give this a try.

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1994 Ranger XLT 2.4L 5spd

Pull the drain plug and see what, and how much comes out.

Just pulled the drain plug, very little, and very black fluid. Maybe 1/2 cup worth

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1994 Ranger XLT 2.4L 5spd

You might flush it, and fill back with the correct oil and get lucky, stranger things have happened, but be perpaired to pull and rebuild it.

Big yikes. Probably lost fluid from the infamous rubber shift rail plugs.

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2001.5 2.3 213xxx and counting
M501-HD L154 Manual
Don't bother looking for 1st gear synchros, I bought the last one

Okay thanks for the reply and advice. I’ll try and flush it and see what happens. Did I do damage by pulling it the 150 feet to the shop? It sounded pretty bad.

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1994 Ranger XLT 2.4L 5spd

If there is damage, it delveloped over the last 6 months when that whine started.