I own a 96 Ford Ranger 3.0 V6 4x4. I recently started having clutch problems. I was getting a soft clutch, and then it wouldn't shift into gear. Checked the brake fluid and it was low. Filled that up, but no luck.

Took her to the shop, and bad quickly turned to worse. Mechanic got everything stripped and here's what had to be done.
• new clutch, flywheel, and pressure plate
• new slave cylinder
• mainshaft in transmission was chewed-up on the end, so he had to tear down the tranny to replace the shaft
• total bill: $1198

I picked it up today, and here's where my main question comes in. The clutch is still really soft, and i'm still having a little trouble getting it in gear. I literally have to push the clutch ALL the way to the floor to get it in gear. There is also no free play whatsoever.

I know that all of the work was actually done. I know these guys well and I saw all of the parts and saw them working on it. What could be going on?

I picked the truck up after hours, so I haven't had a chance to talk to the shop about it yet. Any ideas? I'm hoping it's just air in the lines. If so, is there anything I can do to get it out without the help of someone else? Any help would be greatly appreciated. AC.

 

idk but i normally well actually i always push the clutch all the way down to shift... it doesn't go in gear unless i push the clutch all the way... same deal in my 98 ranger 5 speed and my 08 FJ 6 speed...

 

i can shift with my clutch pushed part way in.

 

Well, I seldom use the clutch unless starting or stopping. Just shift with the rpm, which can be fun with an 08 Ranger, 4.0L V6 as the idle control is spidered in with the speedometer and doesn't like to idle down until vehicle is going slow. Easy fix, tho. Take it over 3000 rpm to shift and it's slick as can be. Same with down shifting.

 

I had the same experience - paid to have clutch replaced 11 years ago and it NEVER shifted properly afterwards. Last year I had the engine out to fix an oil leak and found the problem. The mechanic who installed it didn't lubricate the spline on the input shaft of the tranny so the disk was always dragging on either the flywheel or pressure plate. I lubed it with high temp moly grease and the shifting improved 1000%. I thought about replacing the clutch - but inly had about 80000km on it. About 6 months later the clutch started slipping under hard accelleration so I tore the tranny out today - will be installing new ClutchMax Pro stage 2 kevlar clutch on Monday.