# Ranger Tranny Bound Up



## Inframan (Jan 30, 2011)

So I've gotten a lot of the issues worked out with this Ranger conversion that I bought and now the transmission is having issues. One day I was just driving to work and then the truck refused to go no matter how much I stepped on the accelerator I could even hear the whine of the Curtis controller but the truck refused to move. So I get it towed and when it was home a friend of mine was helping me and find out what was wrong even in neutral the motor wouldn't spin. We then put it in reverse and pushed it backwards and that broke free whatever was locking up inside the tranny and I drove the truck for a while and it did it again this time the same remedy worked. Any ideas as to what the issue is? I put two quarts of tranny fluid in one of them was Lucas tranny fix. Could it be the advanced DC motor having a bearing lock up?


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## piotrsko (Dec 9, 2007)

Inspect motor for over current damage from stalled operation.

Assuming no clutch or torque converter:

Auto tranny: stuck solenoid or 2, broken bits.

Manual tranny: shifter not aligned leaving partial engagement of reverse gear. Something broken.

Did not indicate what you're using, I'm not a ranger trans guru.

Suggest googling the rangerstation.com/forum


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## Inframan (Jan 30, 2011)

Somehow with the controller being as lame as it is I don't think the motor could be damaged although I could be very wrong and will check. I am using a manual transmission and direct drive and thanks I will check out that forum.


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

It sounds like you need to separate the motor and trans. to check the condition of the coupler. It may be working itself off of the motor shaft, forcing the trans. input shaft into the trans. This would eventually jam the gears or cause the shifter misalignment referred to by piotrsko. Normally, snap ring(s) and sometimes a pressed-on bearing locate the input shaft . The snap ring(s) may be loose, broken or missing and /or the shaft might be pressed back through the bearing.

The backing up fix may be pushing the coupler back in place, temporarily. Whatever the cause, you should take care of this right away! You could lose the motor, the trans., and the controller in a worst case failure.

The coupler should be of a design that securely attaches to the motor shaft. The typical set screw over a key way design may not get the job done. Misalignment of the motor shaft and the trans. input shaft(they usually need to be concentric within a few thousands of an inch ) can cause severe side loading of the two. This could cause the coupler to work off the motor shaft, destroy bearings, and/or break shafts. You can't assume proper alignment just because the coupler and shafts slide together during assembly. This is why the car manufacturers typically use alignment dowels in the joint between the engine and trans. for the ultimate alignment of the two.

I don't know if this is your problem; and sorry for the long winded reply. But, this does seem to be a recurring problem with DIYers. Maybe it's the haste to get the main parts together and get the car on the road. If it is your problem(and you should check soon!), you may have to consult with a conversion parts supplier, a machine shop, or a trans. shop to get it fixed right.


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## electro wrks (Mar 5, 2012)

What ever you do, don't leave us hanging about what the problem is! This is your chance to add to the knowledge base. Another possibility is a foreign object in the motor that sometimes wedges between the armature and the field laminations. If this is the case, it should have destroyed the motor by now. But, you might get lucky. I wouldn't run the vehicle until you check out these failure possibilities


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## piotrsko (Dec 9, 2007)

Was thinking further: loose bolt / nut in either bellhousing or trans flopping about. We lost one during assembly once because of the monster vent hole at the top of the bellhousing. Only was a problem braking on a down hill run.


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## Inframan (Jan 30, 2011)

Well I've finally gotten around to removing the trans and the cross member that held it was filthy and the dirty and dust gotten all over me each time I went to move the tranny so I've removed and cleaned that as well. I looked inside the trans and there was nothing wrong with it inside no metal shavings and no gaulding of any kind but I have seen a couple of things that were wrong. The coupler which is just the center of the stock clutch disc bolted to the a motor hub, I guess that's a standard in a lot of clutchless conversions, was slightly loose and the biggie which was the candle stick of the trans (the part of the trans that the throw out bearing rode on) was rubbing up against the coupler and you could see there was definite wear. I am thinking perhaps when you tighten the trans to the adapter plate the candle stick and the coupler were rubbing together so much that they bonded together causing the truck to bind up and me rocking the truck back and forth "broke" it loose. It must have been there first conversion and they just gotten a bunch of stuff wrong and probably didn't drive it that much not enough to find this problem. The tranny just looks clean as a pin I can't see it being anything else. So my plan is the cut some off the candle stick and throw it back together only riding it around the neighborhood until I'm sure its safe.


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## piotrsko (Dec 9, 2007)

That coupler condition is called a stirring weld for those reasons.

How did the plastic ball on the end of the shifter look?


Fwiw: Ford 2.9 likes to leak like a sieve out the rear after perhaps 50 k miles.


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## Inframan (Jan 30, 2011)

Ok a bit of a correction now that I have taken off the the motor hub and seen what was actually happening and the hole that the hub was boring into the aluminum motor face. It almost got to the motor bearing. Near as I can tell the transmission shaft was still too long even with the pilot shaft cut off and the shaft was pushing against the keyway of the coupler, pushing the coupler even with the set screws locked down against the motor face. So I'm going to find a piece of tubing the size of the motor shaft and cut a bit off enough to act as a spacer spacing the hub away from the face so it can't do that anymore and I might have to cut some more off the tranny shaft. I don't know why the people that did this conversion couldn't tell this was happening when they were originally bolting the transmission to the adapter plate!


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## piotrsko (Dec 9, 2007)

Didn't know this was going on also. Might want to see if the bearing on the motor shaft allows the shaft to move back and forth more than a 1/32". I'm dumb because I can't see how whacking off the Input shaft length is going to fix this unless the motor to trans adapter distance is way too short. I'd put a couple of washers between motor and trans on mounting bolts first, put a pin in the coupler to pin it to the motor shaft, then see if you can assemble bolts tight with your fingers only. The whole assembly should slide to touching without any major force. I'd also use a construction washer on the motor face, fastenal and other places stock them up to 2" bolt size.


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## chardricketts (Aug 17, 2014)

It sounds like the same thing my Ford Ranger did., It used to lag into gear and it would revs kinda high going into second gear. The problem was that the rear end was geared down to low and if it doesn't get fixed in time it starts to mess up the actual transmission. Got rid of it though.


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