There’s a wire on my ranger that I noticed is completely exposed for a good 3 inches as I was replacing my oxygen sensors the other day as seen in the first photo. Likely burned on the exhaust and then zip tied by the previous owner. Great fix lol.

In second photo, you can see where it ends, feeding up behind the engine and into the wall of the dash. The third photo is the other end of it. Presumably near the end of the transmission (automatic) running along side the speedometer cable.

Some identification would be great. As for repairs is it safe to simply chop the rusted/exposed wire off and splice it together. I’m also having some transmission issues (slamming into both reverse and drive, trouble getting into second gear) so I’m curious if that could have any relation.

 

Would need wire color to know what they are for

But yes, unhook battery negative cable and then cut out the bad section of wire and splice in a new wire of the same or larger gauge

Automatic Transmission(A4LD) would only have the Clutch Neutral switch bypass coming from inside the cab, which would be a Pink wire, maybe red/blue stripe
Other transmission wires come from inside engine bay

If you are going to keep this 1993 Ranger then I would get the EVTM for it: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/234848846078...kAAOSw0Kljt00b
Google: 1993 Ford Ranger EVTM

Ford sends out a shop manual set for every model they make every year, so Ford techs can service/troubleshoot new models that year
One of the books in that set is the EVTM, and its often sold separately
EVTM will have every wire for all sub-models and options for that Model and Year, also the vacuum system

And they are FREE to use, as you can re-sell it just like the person you are buying it from is doing

 

It came to my realization that this isn't a wire at all but the transmission cable. As far as I'm aware this wouldn't cause any of the issues listed before (slamming into gear and trouble getting into second) and those are likely internal if anything. Do you have suggestions on a basic repair on the exposed cable considering I don't want to dump a ton of money into this poor little truck.

Thanks a lot Ron, I appreciate all the help you've been. I am definitely buying a manual soon enough.