I have a 96 Ford Ranger 2.3L 5 spd (with, I believe, a Mazda Transmission). I just replaced my Clutch, Pressure Plate and Throwout Bearing. In order to replace it all, I had to drop the tranny, which means I also had to disconnect the Hydraulic Clutch Line (which is a quick-disconnect setup). According to the manual, disconnecting the hydraulic line should not let air into the system, however, after I put it all back, I found I have no clutch. There is no pressure and not even force to fully disengage the pressure plate.

One theory is that My new throwout bearing is not the proper length. If disconnecting the hydraulic line really should not require bleeding, then this would make sense.

I've tried bleeding the system the conventional way, no luck. I even tried reverse bleeding (which made it worse), by hooking a hose from my brake caliper bleeder valve, and pumping the brake pedal, which pumped brake fluid back in through my slave cylinder bleeder valve up to the master cylinder resevoir. Still no luck.

I have not tried to gravity bleed because I am not sure how that works, or how I would go about it. Do I just fill up the master cylinder resevoir and open the slave cylinder bleeder valve and let it drip?

I am lost on what to do. Please help

 

the gravity method is what i just did today and worked great! just take the top off the resivior and fill it then go down the the bleeder screw..... attach a clear hose and put it in a bottle and crack the screw open.... just let gravity work..... in the middle of it i pumped the peddal SLOWLY in twice... about 3seconds to push in, 3 seconds till full release then waited about 30 seconds and did it again..... the closed the screw..... WORKED great and very very stupid easy.... goodluck

Joe

 

sobsidian - Not to get off topic too much, but when you reconnected your line did it just snap back in? You release it with that stupid little tool pressing in on the plastic sleeve and pull out. Now I am trying to reverse this and it is not going back in. It feels like trying to put the ol square peg in round hole BS. I wish I could help you with your problem.

 

G2, I had the same problem you did. Just push hard, it will go in. There should be no need to fiddle with the sleeve once its out. Just push in hard until you feel a click. It will be a soft click. You won't quite know whether its in or not, but if you cant pull it back out, it should be in. Also, push down on your clutch to make sure no fluid is leaking out through the connector and you should be fine.

 

Thanks I will try that. I didn't want to brake it when I first tried. I will be waiting for the rain to stop here in VA. Also I will have to find the little clip on top of the clutch rod that connects to the pedal first before I can test for a leak. The damn thing shot off the pin when I disconnected it the other day. Ford wants you to get a whole new MC just to get the clip.

Did you have to re-greese your rear trans rubber seal. I just put a rebuilt trans up in there over the weekend and have not connected the drive line yet. So the yoke is just slid in on the tail shaft. I seem to remember someone talking about greese back there but it is not in the manual.

Sorry for the questions. Did your trans have that screw above the clutch like like I mentioned, or does yours have an external slave?

 

I did not re-grease the rear trans rubber seal. whether you SHOULD or not, im not sure. I know transmission fluid poured out of rear when I dropped the transmission, so Im assuming all you need to do is refill the transmission fluid.

My slave cylinder is internal, and yes it does have the bleed screw above the hydraulic input shaft.

 

I just put a new clutch in my truck as well. Had the same problem no pedal. Best way I found was to leave the cap off the res. give it an hour or so. Come back pump the clutch about 15 times and hold it to the floor. Have a buddy crack the bleeder and KEY PART don't let off the clutch till he closes it repeat that process until all fluid comes out when the bleeder is opened. Make sure during this whole process the fluid stays full. You might have to do it again after you drive it a little I did and know it's good to go.

 

Okay, so the clutch is halfway working now. I bled the clutch as much as I could for about an hour.

I gravity bled for about 5 mins. I then had a buddy push down on the clutch, I open the bleed valve, squirt squirt, close the valve, then release the clutch. I did the whole pumping of the clutch about 5 times after the gravity bleed, then gravity bled again. I repeated this cycle for about an hour. And I got to a point where it felt like it was supposed to.

but then..... I started the enginge to take it for a test drive, and once the engine is started, I can then go about a third of the way down before I get any pressure. With the engine off, I get about 2 inches of play. With the engine on, its more like 5 or 6. So my question is, what could be the problem? I have enough travel to disengage the clutch and pop it into gear, but when I begin to release the clutch, it catches the flywheel too soon (or at least alot sooner than it used to). Any suggestions please???

 

My buddy told me Ford says the only way to all the air out of the lines is to stick a pry bar in the inspection hole and pry back on the slave cyc. lightly with the cap off and the bleeder closed. If that doesn't work try bleeding it agian.

 

Okay, One thing I notice a lot about a lot of forums is that all these people ask questions and many possible solutions are given, but in the end, the person with the problem never states the solution. I am going to describe what I did to finally fix my problem.

I spent about 30 more minutes after work today trying to improve my clutch pressure. It was pretty succesful. I read in another post that someone advised parking the truck facing uphill on a steep hill and try bleeding that way, and then parking the truck down hill and repeating the bleeding process. So I tried this. I parked my truck uphill in my driveway which has a pretty steep incline. Then I gravity bled for about 5 minutes, and then had a buddy do the traditional bleed while he pushed down on the peddle and I stayed under the car opening and closing the bleed valve. After the uphill, I parked it downhill and did the same thing. Although I can't be sure parking it uphill or downhill made a difference, I have a full clutch again, and that is what matters!

Who thought this would turn into a entire afternoon nightmare (with all the hours combined)? Ford needs a better clutch hydraulic sytem!!

One more side note... Now that everything is working and the clutch is replaced, I still notice a squeaking sound, and it is definately coming from the transmission. The whole point in me replacing my clutch was to fix this. I did fix the crunching sound by replacing my throwout bearing (aka release bearing). The crunching sound from the throwout bearing made noise once the clutch pedal was engaged and the shifter was in any gear. Now since I've changed the throwout bearing that noise goes away, but I have a new one (or one that was there that I just thought was part of the throwout bearing). This noise happens once I have the clutch pedal engaged and in gear, and begin to let go off on the clutch pedal and start moving. Its a high pitched squeal.
One thing I did not replace was the pilot bearing. Im not sure if the noise would be caused by that. Once I am actually going and the clutch is fully engaged (meaning no pressure on the clutch pedal), the squeal goes away. Any ideas? Could it be the pilot bearing? I hope not because I just spent 3 days getting the clutch replaced cuz I had no idea what I was doing and I do not want to repeat that process (althought Im sure I could do it in a day now since I have all the tools and know what to expect).

Sorry for the long description. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Thanks for the tip. I tried to use the "mo-***" technique (you know, put some "mo *** behind it") on it today and it was not cooperating. I finally used a long screw driver where there is a hole in the side of the trans in front of the line. Using it to press the line in I heard the "psssst"..click. There must have been alot of pressure in the line. Now I have even bigger problems - New gas tank, new trans, started on the first crank (put afew gallons in to start then filled up later) after I was done, and it ran great for 25 miles. Then it just died 2 streets before my house. Cranks, but no start.

 

Wow, that is very odd. It doesn't seem like anything would be wrong. Only thing I can think of is that there was something in the new gas tank that wasn't taken out and clogged up the fuel line.

Another possibility is that the gas gage wasn't replaced correctly and you are out of gas even though you may think your not.

Or, lastly.... when you replaced your gas tank, the fuel pump electrical wiring may have some how gotten loose, and now there is nothing pumping to the engine.

The best thing to do is disconnect the fuel line from the engine and turn on the car and see if there is any gas leaving the line going to the engine. If not, your problems resides somewhere between your fuel pump and your gas tank. If it does, then you have an bigger problem that I wouldn't even know how to fix.

I hope everything works out.

 

In your first couple of posts you mentioned replacing the "throwout" bearing, which I think is also called a "release" bearing. Is the one you are talking about on the end of the slave cylinder spring? If yes, I am just checking, because one of the Ford parts geeks behind the counter told me that if I was going to replace the release bearing I should also get a new bearing carrier. I seem to remember him saying they were sold separate. I don't remember why but it is one idea. The other, like you said before is the pilot bearing. And that would suck, since you have to remove all but the flywheel to get to it. Not to mention you need to use an internal puller + slide hammer. Normally I like using hammers, but that one bites. I don't know what the signs are, but did you also replace the slave cylinder? I think the same geek said you could get the slave with the bearing for alot of $$$. Don't remember the total.

To compare projects - I didn't remove/replace any parts in the clutch. I just had to transfer the slave and release bearing over to the new trans. I also did not open the MC, so when I finally snaped the clutch line in there should not be any bleeding needed.

As for my new problems, sorry to be a bit of a post wh0re, but no one reads through my other posts that are 3+ pages long. I guess I am starting a new one today. Anyway, the inside of the new tank was clean, and I put 16 gallons in during my trip. It is full, and the gauge says full. I had trouble with the reading on the gauge before the new tank, but all I did was replace the float on the sending unit since the parts geeks said the float some times leaks and fills up so the gauge is off and it was only $5. I didn't want to shell out the $175 for a new sending unit/pump. I will recheck the connector on the tank to see if it is loose. The only thing I am questioning about that connector is that there was alot of "goop" around the bottom of the plug. I got the feeling it was to keep dirt and water out of the connector. Well..... that was after I had already cleaned it out....... So I thought there wouldn't be any harm in replacing the original "goop" with Vaseline. I don't know if I did a bad thing there???? I will try to check the gas flow today. Should the gas flow with just the key turned on, or do you need to crank it?

 

The release carrier huh? I have no idea what that is or where it would be. I did not replace the slave cylinder, but I had to unclip a ring around the top of the slave cylinder to remove the release bearing, which also free'd up the spring to come off the slave cylinder too. Then put on the new release bearing, compressed the spring, and re-attached the clip at the top of the cylinder. Should be it?

As far as your fuel quesiton... I BELIEVE (don't take my word for it though), that fuel should be pumping as soon as you turn the key in the ON posistion, you should not need to crank, since after cranking and the car is started (key being in the ON posistion), the fuel is pumping to the engine without the key in the crank position.

From what I've been told, after the car is turned off, some fuel is still left in the engine. That is why you can start the car immediately without having to wait a few seconds with the key in the ON position, you can go straight to START and still have the car start without dying.

 

Sobsidian - I hav ebeen having the same sueaking sound comming from my transmission/clutch for a quite a while now. I think it started about 2 years ago, sometime after I put on my 31" mud terrains. It dosen't seem to happen for any specific reason, some days it does not happen at all, some it will happen everyother time i stop. And only when you are starting from a stop. I could never find anyone who could tell me what exactly it was, really no one had a clue, and i just assumed it was because of all the added pressure on the clutch by going from the original tiny tires to the 31" tires. But anyway. my clutch is stating to slip, so I figure when I replace everything it will go away......I hope