2000 Ford ranger XLT 3.0. ranger was being driven engine stayed running but would only rev rpms. Came to a stop motor still running tried to switch to different gear and same just rpms reved. Turned off the key tried to restart engine and nothing just free spinning from starter. Vehicle still had electric and now not sure where to go from here. Also pulley system won't turn .

 

Welcome to the forum

Automatic transmission I assume?

Your Flexplate has broken in the center

The flexplate looks like this: https://secureservercdn.net/50.62.17...te-584x381.jpg

It bolts to the crankshaft in the center
It has the ring gear that the starter motor uses to rotate the engine to start it
The torque converter for the automatic transmission also bolts to the flexplate to transfer power to the transmission

If the center of the flex plate breaks it looks like this: https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...0eb68703d4.jpg

When that happens you loose all power to the transmission and changing engine RPMs doesn't matter because crankshaft is no longer connected to flexplate and torque converter

And once engine is shut off the starter motor can no longer turn the engine because ring gear flexplate is no longer connected to crankshaft

You will need to pullout the transmission to repair this

This is not a common issue, were there any recent issues with engine or transmission?