97 Ranger 4 cyl 5 speed 150k.
Recently starting noticing the clutch pedal getting softer and harder to shift. A week later it won't go into gear. I noticed the reservoir was low and I filled it and that helped briefly. Today I've been trying to gravity bleed the clutch master cylinder but now all I have is no pedal. I notice little to very little fluid coming out of the bleeder nipple on the bell housing when I crack it open. Any help?

 

Your reservoir was low... the fluid is going somewhere. I suspect slave cylinder. It's located inside the transmission so dropping the trans is required. Many choose to go ahead and put a new clutch it in as well since you're already there.


The clutch system is designed to bleed via gravity. I like to add a few pumps and hold it to the floor while opening the screw too. But if she's got 150k and it's the original, you're lucky it lasted that long. It's quite a common issue on the newer Rangers (98+).

 

I would say the slave too. They are notorious for leaking. From my experience, the rangers have always had this problem. My dad had a 91 4.0 4dub for a while and the slave went out twice by the time it reached 200k

 

X3 had the same problem, slave replacement did the trick. It's really not that bad to do if u have a day to mess with it

 

X4.... I'm still having issues tho. I need to re-bleed. Mine lasted 100k kms (60k miles) of mostly city driving.

Take the rubber cover off on the trans. If its wet looking, it's the slave.

 

It looked wet at the bleeder. How difficult a job is removing the trans and replacing the slave cylinder?

 

Well, you have to remove anything to get to the trans (exhaust, transfer case if 4wd, driveshaft, anything else I'm missing) then remove the trans.

I had a shop do the work for me as I didn't feel comfortable in doing it myself. Plus I thought it'd only take a day. He had other work that got in the way. I think labour calls for 6 hours. I could be wrong though.