Long time lurker for almost a decade, first post '98 Ranger w/ less than 51K miles inherited from my father-in-law.

I did a search and didn't find anything that lined up with this:

Here's the rundown:

1. Clutch pedal was sticking to the floor, but would pop back out
2. Eventually, it would get to the point to where when it popped back out, it would be hard as a rock (Viagra was not a sponsor of this step!)
3. Once is was hard as a rock, it was impossible to push in. The shifter could be put into gear without the pedal being pushed down, but the tranny would not engage that gear.
4. Let it sit for several hours and it could be driven again for 5 to 10 miles.
5. Inspected everything and no evidence of leaking from the master or slave cylinder.
6. Bled the system.
7. No change. #1 - #3 started occurring after about 6 miles of travel.
8. Suspected the check valve in the master cylinder assembly and decided to replaced that.
9. Replaced the master cylinder assembly (reservoir, master cylinder, line to slave).
10. Everything was fine, or so I thought
11. Took a 13 mile trip and #1 - #3 started again.
12. #4 was applicable and I drove it home.

Everything is pointing towards the slave cylinder, but I thought I'd ask here in the event there's something else that could be the culprit.

I'll be turning it in for the slave cylinder as a tranny jack is not a tool I have on-hand.

Thanks in advance.

 

The clutch system is very simple in these trucks. Disregarding the transmission itself, if you replace the master with no change, and everything is bled properly, slave is likely at fault.

I've seen internal transmission issues happen, but very rarely and at very high mileage, or highly abused transmissions. None of that fits your truck.

Only other thing I have also seen is a bad pedal assembly, as in the bushings wear out, and then the pedal arm wears through the casing eventually causing the clutch pedal to possibly bind and not return. In that case there's usually alot of play in the pedal itself, so it's easily checked.

 

Very late update - slave cylinder was the culprit.