I picked up a 95 2.3L 5 speed ranger over the winter and one of the things I noticed right away was the gear shift in the truck. I find sometimes it won't go into gear, any gear at all. If I try to put it in gear, it acts like theres no gear there haha, its like hitting a brick wall. On other cars I've owned this could be caused by a misaligned shift, is this common to rangers as well? I don't know how their shifting mechanism is set up. The clutch itself definitely doesn't have much bite left on it but I've never seen a worn out clutch make the trans feel as if there isn't a gear to be found, usually just grinds. The trans doesn't grind at all, just can't find a gear with it. If I let it roll forward a tiny bit it'll go into gear no problem. I'm going to change the gear oil soon and see if that helps any, the clutch fluid reservoir is topped up too. I also considered a bad transmission mount?

Thanks
Andrew

 

The slave cylinders tend to fail in Rangers. Could also be a bad master.

 

Lube wouldn't have much to do with it. Bent shift forks? depends if you can get 3rd but not 4th. I find it odd that it's off and on...pointing towards the clutch not being engaged all the time.

 

4th always has a hard time going in, I usually have to give it a minute before it goes into 4th.

Edit: I considered the shift forks, I was hoping it wasn't that :D haha

 

Does it grind or make noise or does it go into gear and nothing happens.

 

goes into gear, no noises

 

it bet its the slave since you need a clutch anyway get a clutch kit and slave and you will probably solve your problem

 

I was looking around online at the clutch kits and noticed some offered the slave. I'll make sure the one I get comes with the slave and replace it at the same time.