I recently bought a 1983 V6 Ranger and after driving it home, I've run into a few problems.

Most notably, I've got a large oil stain on the ground toward the rear of the engine after only a couple days of sitting. My gut would tell me this is a bad rear main seal, but I'm not sure.

Unfortunately that's not all that's wrong with it, so hopefully these next couple of things will either be related or will point to a more definite problem.

The shifter was kind of loose as I drove it home. Not a big deal, I figured I'd just tighten it up later, but now I can't even find the gears. Its like the shifter is completely out of it's pocket... I don't really know how else to describe it. It's just kind of hangs up from the floor loosely.

The last thing that I've noticed about it is that if I push in the clutch, the RPMs rise pretty substantially. I've heard that this could be caused by a problem with the throttle body OR a bad clutch.

Given all of the problems together, I believe I probably have a bad rear main seal and clutch. As far as the shifter goes, I'm not really sure... Maybe I just need to go in and tighten it?

Anyway, thanks in advance for any help... hopefully someone has had this problem before!

 

There is a repair kit available that replaces the ball and bushing in the top of the transmission. Locate and install it and that should take care of the sloppy shifting.

 

Oil pan gaskets on 2.8s are famous for leaking at the rear of the pan at the bottom of the radius.

 

For the increase in engine speed when you push on the clutch pedal, start checking the air intake system, idle speed control, throttle body for dirt or carbon, etc.

 

Regarding the oil stains, seeing as how this is a vintage Manual tranny, be sure to check the side case rubber plugs on the tranny, as they're famous for dryrotting & leaking, or falling out & that can cause failure from most all of the tranny lube draining out.