My 1994 international is stuck in 1st gear but shifter is in neutral

SOURCE: 1994 Ford Ranger won't shift into drive

In 9 out of 10 cases when I see this problem in the ranger, it is the planetary gear in the transmission. It is made of the cheapest metal available. It breaks usually from going to park before the truck stops or switching from reverse to drive while still rolling. Just a Idea , But I hope it isn't that . Reverse will work fine for a while, and have no forward gears.

SOURCE: Shifter is stuck in neutral and will not move

happened to me. There's a cheap plastic retaining clip which holds some kind of electrical cable to the mechanical assembly. THis clip broke on me trying to move the shifter into drive one day. THe shifter was actually able to be placed into park again but the indicator read, "D". I had to remove all the plastic around the steering wheel so that I could view underneath it. Once I located the assembly and discovered the broken plastic retainer I re-connected the cable to it's connector and secured it in place with multiple rubber "o-rings". I'm sorry that I don't remeber the sizes. It's been about a year and 1/2 and the shifter works better than before. Took about one and a half hours to fix after trying different sizes of "o-rings" that I had handy. I'm sure a cotter pin would work as well.

SOURCE: I only have 3rd and 4th gear, 1st 2nd and 5th are

Purchase a gear shift repair kit for your car. They are pretty cheap. About 20 bucs. The ball and bushings are probably worn.

SOURCE: transmission is stuck in reverse but the shifter

Check for wear in the gear lever selector/gate mechanism.
It may have allowed the lever to select reverse, the 'jump' the lockout gate back to neutral position for selection of forward gears.
You may be able to de-select reverse if you access the lever directly at the gearbox case.

SOURCE: I have a 1998 Chevy

good chance that the shifter cable broke