my 1988 2wd pickup will not go into 5th gear. Any advice on how to fix?

 

are you sure its a 5 speed?

 

yeah, i'm sure it is cause it will go over sideways where it should, but will not go into gear. plus 4th runs at 70 around 4000 rpms. someone told me the fith gear fork may be bad, but you would have to split the tranny in two to check it and I am no big mechanic let alone a tranny guy. I have never been into the inside of a tranny, plus no carport, garage, and have a gravel driveway if you know what I mean.

 

http://www.marlincrawler.com/tech/tr...ar-ratio-chart

All the transmission 4th gears are direct drive(1.00), with the exception of the A340. it is still a posibility some swaped an older L series 4 speed into it, you can try the marlin crawler photo ID page. The marlin crawler site doesn't however cover the W4-series. Of course I should mention that even in the 4 speeds you can move the shifter to the right hand side of 4th because thats where reverse is, so just because it moves further right that just means you know it's not a 3 speed(which of course no ones made in donkey years).

The W46 was used in the 4runners(87-88) and pickups (86,89-90), according to one of the mitchel PDF's I have.

Its possible to diagnose if it's the syncro or the shift key springs, not fully conclusively, by draining the lube. If you get lots of metal it's likely the syncro, if you find spring bits or parts of the shift keys it's not the sync gears

As the old saying goes.. If it doesn't fit force it if it breaks it needed replacing anyway.