Hi,
I have a 2005 ranger edge with 150k miles on it. It shifts very smooth when the engine is cold, but after an hour of driving or idling it becomes very hard to shift into gears and requires me to put a lot of force to get it to slide into gears. Mainly 1st and 2nd gear are the troubling ones.


​​​​​​I replaced the clutch, master, slave cylinder and new brake fluid in it 5k miles ago. I bench bled the master and ran many cycles of fluid thru the slave. It seems like something is heating up and expanding causing me not to be able to shift easily.

Any ideas?

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Check the transmission fluid, you have an M5OD-R1 transmission, and it uses ATF, yes, automatic transmission fluid in a manual trans
Mercon V is spec, some like synthetic versions

Any way there are two larger bolt heads/plugs on drivers side of trans, upper one is the FILL, or where you check fluid level

Seen here: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-U...1/IMG_0453.JPG

They both use a 15/16" wrench/socket, or 24mm
Pull off the FILL bolt/plug and fluid should barely drip out, put little finger in the hole and get some fluid on it, should be nice and RED, if not time to change the fluid

Only holds 2.8 quarts BONE DRY so drain and refill might only take 2 quarts, but get 3, lol


It's possible the clutch disc is not able to be fully released from the pressure plate(air in the system) but should only effect 1st gear when stopped, once you are moving its pretty easy for even a sticking clutch disc to RPM match output shaft