4th gear popping out.
 

I'm looking to buy an 89 2.9 ranger off a guy and he told me that the synchronizer on the 4th gear is going out or is out, because 4th gear keeps popping out. While it doesn't seem as much of an issue to just skip 4th to 5th to get it where I need it to go, how much work is it gonna be to change this thing out?

if its popping out of gear that doesnt sound like a syncro problem to me...when a syncro starts to go or is completely gone you will have a hard time getting in/out of gear...IMO theres something else going on

Apparently you can hold it in gear, but if you let it go, it just pops out.

yea it might be a syncro problem but idk a lot about trannsmissions

youll want 4th. goin up a hill at speed like on the frwy isnt really a option in 3rd and 5th is like pure od gearing on these trucks.

yea do you know what rear end gears are in it

its not the synco its a problem with 4th gear. in less you want to rebuild the tranny then id stay away from it. but get it cheap.

Looks to be a synchro problem. Taking off the pan and looking at the synchros, the one of the two between 3rd and 4th is sheared smooth on two sides, kind of egg shaping the synchro. I would imagine that's not how it's supposed to look since all the others have gears all the way around them. I just bought the factory service manual books, so I'm going to pull this thing apart and rebuild it. Any suggestions on where to get a manual transmission rebuild kit at?

sounds more like a shift fork problem.

Could be a worn synchro or bent shift fork..however the bent fork could also affect your 3rd gear. I would lean towards a worn synchro.