I have a 1990 ranger 2wd 2.3l that I am swapping with a volkswagen tdi. I need to get the adapter plates/kit from td conversions to fit the engine to the ford tranny. They only make conversion kits for 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 4.0 engines on their website. My question is if the manual 4 speed with overdrive transmission from my ranger is the same transmission/bolt pattern as any of the transmissions from rangers with those engines. I believe my tranny has a fixed bell housing so I'm hoping I can still use my tranny since it only has 90k miles and has no problems.

 

Welcome to the forum

Ford started switching to the M5OD-R1(M5R1) 5-speed manual trans in 1988, no M5R1 has detachable bell housing, bell housing and main housing are one piece
M5R1 is a model number not what it fits, they also have different gear ratios depending on what engine it was made for
The 2.8l, 2.9l and 4.0l engines used the same block so same bell housing bolt pattern
3.0l Vulcan has a different pattern
2.3l SOHC is also a different pattern

So there were 3 sub-models of the M5R1, actually 6 since all 3 also had a 4WD version
A 7th sub-model was added when the 2.3l DOHC Duratec engine was offered in Rangers in late 2001, different pattern than 2.3l SOHC like you have, not 8th because 2.3l DOHC never came in a 4WD


You can't use your 2.3l trans for the swap, unless you want to build your own adapter, will cost a lot
Sell it
Get a 4.0l 2WD trans, 1990-1997 will have the speedometer cable hookup you need for your 1990, 1998 and up will not
(must be 2WD version)

The 4.0l M5OD-R1 trans has the closest gear ratio match to a TDI 5-speed manual

You probably wouldn't even use 1st gear if you used a 3.0l manual trans