Hello Everyone,

It seems like I am having trouble shifting into 1st gear from a complete stop while the truck is still running. It is like it won't catch or won't slip into the gear, and no matter how hard I press, it doesn't want to go sometimes. But any other gears goes in real nice. It is also a little hard to go into second while the truck is moving... Any suggestions? What can I do to fix it?

 

Likely a clutch slave cylinder or a clutch master cylinder issue. While running with clutch in, usually if you wiggle the shifter into 3rd and 4th then back to first it'll slip in. Eventually it might be very hard to remove from 1st gear even with the clutch in. Tall tell sign of a bad slave cyl or master. Slave cylinders fail more frequently than the master does.

Slave cylinder is located inside the transmission, so the transmission needs to be dropped to gain access to it. This is also a good time to replace the clutch and pilot bearing.

 

Check your fluid level the clutch fluid reservoir is on the fire wall next to the brake fluid tucked under the fender. Mine was hard to get into gear a few days ago and all it needed was some fluid and a burp I had an air bubble in it. But if you have a lot of miles on the truck I would look at replacing the clutch and slave cyl. I replaced mine at 160k miles on the factory clutch.

 

I am having some issues, it's related. I replaced the slave 3 months ago, fluid is topped up but it's still hard to get into gear. The only thing I can think of is when the clutch was installed, there was a burning fluid smell. I thought it was excess brake fluid and it eventually went away but it could be gear oil. I had him replace those plastic plugs on the shift rails for dorman ones. It's possible that one of those came loose and puked all my gear oil over time. I'm gonna look into it today and replace the gear oil anyways.

My question is, how much gear oil? Just to the bottom of the plug? Also what do I use? Dextron or mercron

 

I'm thinking it's the slave.. On my dads old ranger he used to have to pump the clutch several times to get it go into first or reverse at a stop.. Have you noticed the fluid in the reservoir get low to the point where you had to refill it?

 

Race up the engine some, slip it in second and then in to first.
When coming to a stop race the engine, slip it in first before stopping while the truck is rolling to a stop.
When taking off bring up the rpms more than usual, it should shift easier.

Now to fix it… that’s the rest of the story !