1994 ford ranger XLT 4.0 2 wheel drive 5 speed manual trans, after sitting in uphill incline driveway for 2 weeks my truck does not want to shift gears,,after sitting at idle for a few minutes you can slide it from gear to gear but if you drive down the road and come to a stop it does not want to shift into any gear easily. could it possibly air in the lines,was told to check the fluids.


- ok drained the transmission oil in the Manuel transmission, could not get fill plug of so took the shifter off to fill it and when we did the the shifter <nobr style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; color: darkgreen;" id="itxt_nobr_1_0">bushings</nobr> were in pieces. so we took a shot in the dark and replace them , there is still no change in the shifting i drove it down the road thinking maybe oil needed to circulate, but still no change have to fight it to shift it. if you are just sitting still it will shift from gear to gear but if you let it roll backward about 3 inches you play hell getting into first gear, but if i kick the clutch really hard to the floor it slides in with ease, i thinking maybe the master cylinder is bad? as i said before had absolutely no signs of any problems i just got from a 1600 mile round trip went to my sons for a few weeks and when got ready to go home it just all the sudden didn't want to shift, i know normally if the clutch is going out there are some signs, on most trans problems.... Please help winter is coming and I do in home care for Hospice and need my truck. thanks

 

Did you check the fluid level in the master cylinder? Check for any signs of a fluid leak under the truck at the back of the engine. Check for any signs of a fluid leak under the dash where the rod from the clutch pedal goes through the firewall. Check for any signs of worn bushes in the pedal linkage under the dash.
If fluid in the master cylinder is low add some brake fluid to it and pump the pedal and see if it improves.

 

have bleed master cylinder to the point of filling the reservoir 2 times did get white gunky crap out of it and still no change as soon as you back out of driveway it starts to stick again,,,oh and have found no leaks anywhere...even checked under the carpet, reservoir was full when it all the sudden stop working...

 

Then, if it was me, I would replace the master cylinder. If you do decide to do that make sure you bleed the new one well (should have instructions with it) before you connect it to the system.

 

Welcome to FTE.

Good idea to start your own thread for this problem.

I'm gathering from what I've read, that this problem didn't come about until after the tranny had been messed with & it's fluid was changed & the clutch master & slave cylinders were flushed with new fluid.

So the first question that comes to mind is if the proper replacement tranny fluid was used????

This tranny doesn't use high viscosity gear lube as they did in the past, but instead uses auto tranny fluid & Mercon was origonally specified.

So if your using Motorcraft fluids for it, Ford no longer markets Mercon, but has changed the recipe on Mercon-V, to a multivehicle dual use Mercon-V/Mercon fluid, so thats what should be in the tranny now.

If you've used the higher viscosity gear lube, the synchronizers won't work properly & the gears will be hard to shift.

If on the clutch master & slave cylinder flush, if you've let the fluid level get low & air got into the master or slave cylinder, it's difficult to get out on this system & a special proceedure will have to be done to purge all of the air from the system & there is a link in the "Tech Info" thread atop this forums thread listing page on how to do it.

Ford Motorcraft DOT-3 fluid is a mighty good product to use in your clutch master cylinder system.

A bunch more thoughts for pondering, let us know how it goes.

 

no!! trany had not been worked on, have never had any signs of trouble with trany or truck before the other day, it was suggested to change the oil in the trans is the only reason it was done. and yes checked to see what oil to put in it before i did it. i did research on this site and i did as one guy had done .we raised the front end of the truck and leveled out the master cylinder and bled it about 8 times, droped it down and it seem to have done the trick for a little while, i drove it home last-night about 200 miles and it drove fine but this morning it was a little ruff. so my guess master cylinder has a leack or is going bad,,

 

Don't know the clutch system bleeding methods you've tried, but here are a couple of clutch system bleed proceedures with 3 or 4 methods folks have tried.

The proceedure Hank proposes seems to have produced good results for a number of folks.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/2...ding-help.html

I kinda like Hardwaremans proceedure, where he places a box wrench on the slave cyls bleed valve, then hooks a long length of clear plastic tubing to the slave cyl's bleed valve, fills the tubing with brake fluid & inserts the other end in the clutch master cylinders resevoir, then opens the slave cyl's bleed valve & pumps away on the clutch pedal, to effectively "bench bleed" the entire system, until you don't see any more air in the clear plastic tubing.

If the systems fluid has been changed & is clean & fresh, doing it this way you don't use any more fluid as you're just recycling it, thus you don't have to worry about keeping the clutch master cyl reservoir topped off, so it seems to me one man could do the bleed job this way!!!!.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/2...ding-info.html

If the system has gotten a large amount of air in it, has high spots, kinks, loops, ect in the tubing & one can't exert enough flow to dislodge the trapped air by pumping the clutch pedal, then the vacuum, or pressure bleed, or Hanks air burp method may also be needed.

Anyway look trough the links to see which method, or combination thereof may best fit your situation.

More clutch bleed thoughts for pondering, let us know how it goes.

EDIT: OOPS, looks like we can't save & post a search function results, so I'll have to go back & look up & post each thread seperately. Stand by!!!! lol

 

To continue, if your certain you have the correct viscosity tranny lube in there, we can set that thought aside for now.

The repair I was thinking of was the shifter bushing replacement work you did & the fact that to replace those parts & replace the tranny lube, it had to be opened up & messed with & you did find the shifter bushngs had disintegrated, so I was wondering if any of those parts debris had mucked the mechanical working up & if the right replacement tranny fluid had been used.

On the clutch bleeding, if your certain you've done all you can, pull the inspection port at the clutch slave cylinder & make sure the clutch throw/movement is to spec, about 1 inch I believe.

If you don't have enough clutch movement, suspect air still remains in the system, or if it moves but doesn't stay put, but slowly changes/leaks down, as you suspect maybe the master cylinder seals are worn & fluid is leaking by it's piston, in which case replace it & I'd also consider replacing the slave cylinder at the same time.

Let us know what you find & how it goes.