I have a 93 ranger xlt. Very basic but gets between 18 and 33mpg depending on summer or winter. I owe it to the clutch and transmission gearing. In January, I had put on 11,000 miles and the clutch went out. It was soft, it wouldn't shift into gear, and Reverse would grind. We replaced the master and slave cylinders, throwout bearing, hydraulic lines & fluid, and the friction plate (it was in the package) and 2000 miles later the gears dont want to shift and the reverse is grinding again.

Can anyone explain why this happened so quickly? I don't beat on it, i hardly ever make it above 4000 rpm. I shift at the bottom of the next gear. There shouldnt be leaks or air bubbles entering the system. If I bleed both cylinders, will the problem come back? I apologize for my naivety, I'm 18 and have only owned one vehicle. Can pushing the clutch too hard or not pushing it enough slowly cause a leak?

 

Rangers are known for issues with bleeding they hold a lot of air. But heres a few steps to diagnose first id say check out the youtube video by perfection clutch on bleeding the ranger clutch its very thorough and worked like a charm for me. Also if you replaced the clutch "friction plate" or disk and not the pressure plate then that could be your issue most rangers have self adjusting clutches which means if you replace only the disk without releasing the springs on the pressure plate it will wear the new clutch disk very rapidly because it is adjusted for the worn one you took out and is unfortunately not covered under warranty of the part. So if i were you id check the youtube video first and try rebleeding if that doesn't solve your issue then id check around for a new clutch kit i went with non self adjusting when i swapped from auto to manual and the kit was about $90 on the rock auto site which is a pretty good price for pressure plate and disk.

 

No, you can't abuse the clutch system by pressing pedal to hard or to soft.

Yes, it reads like you have air in the slave, the Ranger clutch setups are a PITA when they get air inside.