I'm still waiting on the top cover gasket, three rubber shift tower plugs, and to reseal the extension housing on mine. But I asked on the Dodge Charger group about my transmission problem with my 5 speed 93 ranger. I told them I took off the top cover without it being in neutral and said I turned the input shaft too. Several of the guys said it was ok. They told me to slide the gears back into place and hold the output shaft and turn the input shaft and if the input shaft turned and the output shaft didn't it was in neutral. I thought this was going to be something difficult that I'd never understand, but I went over and figured out what they were talking about sliding into gear, and I slightly held onto the output shaft and turned the input shaft and it did exactly as the Dodge Charger guys said. He said he's never had experience on a Ranger 5-speed but that basically all manual transmission act the same. So hopefully I'm ok.

 

Good luck. And yes, most manual trans are very similar. Just like engines... they all have some variation of the same components. Well, except for those freak Mazda rotary things.

 

Don't replace the rubber shift rail plugs with the same thing. Go get the brass plugs or small soft plugs.