Good evening smart fellas. I've got a 2002 Ranger 4.0L, 5-spd Manual 4x4. Today I started getting an occasional grinding noise going into 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears. The clutch reservoir level is good (but there is a little bit of fine particulate on the bottom) and there was no noticeable difference in the feel of the clutch pedal but the friction point seems to be a closer to the floorpan than before.

My suspicion is that after 140k miles and a slave cylinder swap 40k miles ago, there's now some air somewhere in the clutch hydraulics. My going in gameplan is to disconnect the line from the slave cylinder and pull it all out, inspect the lines, replace the master cylinder, bleed, re-install, and bleed.

Questions to the crowd are:
1) Does that seem like a reasonable gameplan based on symptoms?
2) Are there any known weak points where air might be getting introduced?

Thanks,
Marty

 

After a little more research, I found perfection church's troubleshooting checklist. I disconnected the line to the slave cylinder and the pedal was nice and firm. Reconnected, flushed quite a bit of DOT3 through the slave bleeder and sealed it all back up.
I'm still getting some grinding noises when I shift. Additionally, there's a definite rattle at about 2300 rpm on the road, in gear with the clutch engaged that doesn't happen in the driveway in neutral.
Short of going to a transmission shop with my wallet out, I'm out of ideas. Anyone else have a thought?