Bought an 03 4WD with the 4.0/5spd combo. The seller told me that the trans would not shift into gear so he had a new clutch put in it the day before I bought it. The first week it shifted fine, now there is difficulty going into first and reverse. At present, I am skipping first gear and launching in 2nd. Reverse works if I have the truck rolling backwards at creeping speed or less.

I figure I have a bad slave cylinder. The clutch pedal travels half way to the floor before engaging the clutch. Not sure if that is normal or signals a problem.

I figure the clutch swap was done by the prior owner on the cheap, so he only replaced the clutch disc. My plan is to replace the pilot bearing, throughout bearing, slave cylinder and and master cylinder. do you think the problem is the slave cylinder? should I replace the pressure plate while I have the trans dropped? The truck has 147k miles on it.

Finally, in buying parts, I figure the Ford dealer or NAPA. Agree? Disagree.

In the T5 I dropped into my 70 mustang, I ran redline ATF at first. It would not shift well and trying to get into first was like hitting a brick wall. After a lot of research I learned that the redline was too "slippery" for the T5 as it would not allow the synchros to operate correctly. Replaced the fluid and it worked fine. Is the tranny in the truck a T5?

thanks for the advice. As a new ranger owner I appreciate those who post here, with both their questions and with answers. A great learning tool.

 

Yes, you are on the right track.

The Rangers came with self-adjusting pressure plates so clutch pedal engage/disengage should stay in about the same place on the clutch pedal through out the clutch disc's life.

When new clutch disc is installed the self-adjusting pressure plate needs to be reset with hydraulic press or replaced.
If pressure plate was reused and not reset then you would have a hard time disengaging engine from transmission which is what you describe, if input shaft(clutch disengages this) still has some torque applied to it from engine RPMs then shifting into first or reverse is very hard to do.

Rangers do have an issue with air in the clutch system, they are troublesome to bleed.
I would re-bleed the system making sure reservoir never runs dry.
It could just be air in the system because it would have the same symptom you describe, hydraulic fluid doesn't compress much, air does, so 1/2 your pedal travel is just compressing the air in the system, so you only have 1/2 the pedal travel you need and would have without the air.

 

You may just need to bleed the clutch hydraulics. If the slave is not leaking fluid, it should be OK. The master cylinder can go bad without leaking fluid. A bad pilot bearing can cause these symptoms also.

Your Ranger has a Mazda transmission with a model number of something like M-50. It should have ATF in it. I use Royal Purple Synchromax and I like it a little better than regular ATF. It shifts a little smoother but will not solve a problem like you are having.

 

ok, thanks for the info. I did not know about the self-adjusting pressure plate and the need to have it re-set. I will try to contact the seller and learn what parts were replaced.

 

Thanks for posting. I will try bleeding the air out of the system, first.

 

sub'd for my future reference. good info here.

 

Just FYI
You do not need to replace pressure plate with self adjusting model, regular pressure plate will work and is cheaper.
Difference is when clutch disc is new the clutch pedal needs to all the way to the floor to disengage and engage.
Then as the disc wears down the disengage/engage gets higher and higher on the pedal until clutch disc is worn out.

I prefer self-adjusting, but one is not "better" than the other, or last longer than the other, just a choice.