96 Ranger 2.3L M5OD Whines real loud in 3rd & 5th gears

[Lee185]

My daily commute to work doubled back in January so I've really been racking up the Hwy miles on my lil truck.

It started about a week ago, shifting into both 3rd. & 5th. gears brought on a definite whine & rattle from the transmission, at times its rattling the gear shift so much that I have to keep my hand on the top of the gear shift to keep the noise inside the cab down.

Whatever the problem is its getting worse last night on the way home from work the whine from 5th. gear was louder than the engine & road noises.

It immediately stops whining if you take your foot off the gas, it only makes the whine while accelerating in 3rd & 5th gears, there are zero issues shifting gears, it does not whine at all with the clutch pedal depressed, but then again my foot is off the gas pedal when pushing in the clutch.

The clutch, pressure plate, throughout bearing & pilot bearing were replaced in 2010 about 70,000 mi ago, the bulk of those miles have been in the last 6 months.

Any ideas guys??

 

[Benjam]

I have nothing to add except for my M5OD whines in 5th also. Sounds exactly like the rear pinion is out of it but goes away in say, 4th gear.

Benjam

 

[Lee185]

Mine does the same, 4th gear is virtually silent.

I did find this article & I'm wondering if this might be the issue

http://www.ford-trucks.com/articles...five-speed-transmission-preventative-measure/

Lee

 

[RangerX]

I did find this article & I'm wondering if this might be the issue

http://www.ford-trucks.com/articles...five-speed-transmission-preventative-measure/

Lee

Have you noticed any leaking? Maybe get underneath and see if there's fluid running from the top of trans. While you're there, good time to check fluid level at the fill plug.

 

[Lee185]

No leaks that I can see, No fluid running off it anywhere.

I changed the fluid today to hopefully extend the life of the tranny for a little while & only got 3 qts. out of it, so at a minimum it was a qt. low. Which is odd due to the fact that I can't find a leak anywhere. If there is one it must be a small leak or possibly the tranny is burning up the Fluid??

A small amount of fine metal shavings on the magnetic drain plug which is normal, I even flushed it with some tranny fluid to see if I could chase any more out & got nothing but clean fluid in return.

After filling it back up with 4 qts. of Mercron, with the truck up on the ramps, transmission in neutral & the engine running, I could hear some odd noise coming from the bell housing that I've never heard before, so possibly it is a clutch related problem.

Lee

 

[Lee185]

Update

The tranny lasted another couple of weeks & finally went out on me on a Friday night on the way home from work.

At one point I couldn't shift out of 4th, then I could not shift into 2nd. So it was rev it high in 1st. & then jump to 3rd which was fine til I got up into the mountains where I live.

Pulled the tranny the next morning, replaced the clutch disc, pressure plate, pilot bearing, slave cylinder & put a rebuilt 95 M50D tranny in her, while I was at it I replaced all 3 u joints & the center bearing (which happens to be the cheapest POS I've ever seen manufactured)

When I picked up the rebuilt I noticed that the speedo gear was the old cable style & mine is electronic so I pulled mine out & put it in the rebuilt.

Took it for a test drive & now the speedometer is way off, 30 mph is the last accurate reading I get, it reads 50 when I'm actually going 65 per my gps.

I've read up a bit on speedo drive gears, but it seems to be a guessing game of which color of gear to go with.

Any help / direction to go would be appreciated.

Thanks Lee

 

[RangerX]

Check the transmission sub forum, there's a stickied thread on the different speedo gears.