Hello All,

I have had an issue with my 2005 ranger not going into first for many years. On occasion I have to forcefully push it into gear. I have posted about it and most thought that it would be a clutch issue. I have 110K on it but I drive like a little old lady and could hardly believe that I would ever wear out a clutch. I replaced the slave cylinder and had the same issue. I did not change out the hydraulic line so I just did that and now the clutch pedal feels softer even though I was very careful at bench bleeding it. Out of the car, the clutch pedal was very firm and would barely budge at all so I thought I did a good job with it. I drove the truck and had no issues putting it into gear but am concerned that the pedal is lower and there seems to be some dead pedal prior to it engaging the clutch. I will have to drive it further to see if the hard to get into gear issue is resolved and if it is I would say I fixed it but the pedal is so much different. I had the master out of the car both times and had a good bench bleed then gravity bleed both times with a similar pedal feel.

Could an issue with the hydraulic line cause this much difference?

Also, I heard you can bleed these if you get them on an incline. How steep does it have to be to work.

Thanks all and Merry Christmas.


BOBO

 

Don't need an incline
Just open the reservoir and make sure it has fluid
Then put a pan down under the Bleeder on the slave
Open it
Fluid should gravity bleed down and push any air out
Its slow

If you have a helper they can push down the clutch pedal and hold it down, when bleeder is open, then close bleeder, and have them release the pedal, repeat

It WILL squirt out so heads up

The hydraulic hose has a valve at the slave end, when removed from the slave the clutch pedal should NOT move at all, the valve is closed so fluid can't leak out, so pedal can't go down at all
If clutch pedal moves then its pivot bushing at the top of the pedal arm is worn out, or the Master has air in it, because it sits at a 45deg angle up

But if you can shift into any gear when stopped(engine running) then clutch is working fine

The gears in the transmission are hooked up to the rear wheels at ALL times, no disconnect for that
So when you are stopped the gears in the transmission are at 0 RPMs, zero
The engine is at 700-800RPMs

So to put the transmission into any gear, when stopped the input shaft of transmission must also be at.............0 RPMs
The clutch disc is on the input shaft

The clutch pedal removes the pressure holding clutch disc to flywheel, so clutch disc can SLOW DOWN from 700rpms to 0 RPMs
If there is ANY rubbing the clutch disc can't quite slow down all the way
As you push the shifter in to any gear there is a softer metal synchromesh gear that presses against the chosen gear(at 0 RPMs), that helps to SLOW DOWN the clutch disc to 0 RPMs..........unless it is rubbing too much, because the Slave is not releasing the pressure all the way
That could be from air in the system, air prevents full travel of the salve, so can't release all the pressure

Or air in the Master, can't send all the fluid it needs to to the slave

 

Thanks so much for the reply and explanation.

I did a good bench bleed and then slowly gravity-bled the slave. It is just so unfortunate that these are such a pain to bleed.

It may be fine as it drives fine but now my clutch pedal is even lower than before.

I am thinking of using a mitivac and sucking out any air from the reservoir as seen on TV.


I will update my progress.

Thanks again,

Merry Christmas

 

I would get a new Master, it could be the piston or spring is damaged if pedal height is low, this also reduces the amount of fluid that can be transferred to the slave
Or at least pull it out again and make sure piston comes to very top against c-clip and when hose is disconnected it has NO movement down
Remove c-clip and pull out the piston, and spring, inspect seal on piston

Master is a pretty simple setup, like brake master
When the piston is all the way up the hole to the reservoir hose is open, called a Check valve, so fluid is free to flow into the hydraulic system, replacing any fluid that may have leaked out, and allows Gravity bleeding
When piston is pushed down it closes off that hole, as piston goes down its spring is compressed, and fluid is pushed out the hose going to slave, not back up into the reservoir
Resistance to pedal going down is mostly at the slave end, the spring fingers on the Pressure plate, but also some resistance from the spring inside the Master
Your description of a "softer pedal" may mean an issue with this spring???? never ran into that before

The slave is just a sealed cylinder, no internal parts at all, so even simpler than master, about all that can go wrong with a slave is that it leaks from a bad seal

 

Thanks for the responses.

I bought a mityvac and bled the master with that as well and it is much better now. I sucked the air out through the top and got the pedel nice and high again. I drove it around for a day and I did not have the issue putting it in first as I did earlier but time will tell.

I wish that the ranger was easier to bleed but that is just not in the cards. I replaced the clutch position switch and my cruise is working again also. If I had to that again I would just go to the hardware store and replace the missing spring. The new one has 2 springs pushing back the sensor. Oh well, we gave our lord Motorcraft a few bucks to spend on Christmas..


Thanks for the help.


Hope this helps someone else.


BOB

 

You say you sucked air out through the top. Where were you applying the vacuum, at the reservoir?

 

Yes, the reservoir has a hole at the bottom that I inserted the mity vac into then suck.

A bit more detail.

It was a recently bought master cylinder

I have the mityvac hooked up

I have the master cylinder near the firewall but not installed so that I can pump and tap it to get the air our.

I apply vacuum and tap the master cylinder and pump it getting small and large bubbles to come out.

Be careful not to suck any air back in. I did that about 10 times.

I would press the master against my leg as I kept an eye on the bubbles.

It took a bit of time but I got the pedal nice and hard and she seems to be doing better.

I looked like I was getting personal with my Ranger.


BOB

 

I've been struggling with similar issues with my clutch. I bench bleed my six month old master cylinder (The Perfection Clutch way), and it's solid as can be. I put it in the truck, and it's good for a month or so and then slowly it gets worse. I pull it back out, the master is full of air again. I've replaced the O-rings at the master, and at the slave side of the hydraulic line multiple times, and no change. Only two things can be happening, I'm not actually getting all of the air out (it's probably hiding at the top of the master where the pivot arm goes in), and it eventually multiplies into a million bubbles over time, or I'm overlooking something big time, like maybe the brake fluid boiling due to the thermal shielding on the hydraulic line getting old and brittle (brake fluid isn't black so I doubt it). The only thing I haven't done is pull the piston out of the master and inspect the seals. That should also release any major air trapped at the top as well.

You're not kidding when you say the clutch hydraulics on these trucks are a bear to deal with.

 

I thought you found a way to get the air out with the master in place. What you are doing is what I consider the normal way to bleed the master without having to totally remove it from the vehicle. The one exception is you are using vacuum to help remove the air. I don't know if vacuum helps a lot but it sure can't hurt anything. The important thing is to get the connection to the reservoir line higher than the rest of the master cylinder so the air can find its way out when you push the rod in.

One thing you should be careful of when using vacuum is to make sure you are not drawing air in at the slave when vacuum is applied to the master.