I have a 99' f150 4x4 4.6v8 with a manual trans. I am not the best manual driver in the world but i have been practicing a lot. i have noticed that whenever i first shift into any gear it is hard to put it in and i have to jiggle it to get it to go. Once it is in the gear it moves smooth as silk to the other gears as long as i don't let off the clutch. If this explains it any better, i mean that if i'm stopped and i push in the clutch and try to shift into any gear, it will be hard but once i get it in, it will shift smoothly to the other gears as long as i dont let off the cluch as soon as i let off the clutch it starts over. I'm not sure the problem and any help anyone can give will help thank you.

 

Also this would not be a problem, but it makes the shifts so slow i feel like i'm riding the clutch and i don't want to damage it.

 

This sounds like your clutch slave cylinder is leaking. This is a all too common problem with these manual trannies. Sad to say it's an expensive problem to fix. I've had to do it several times on my '89 F150.

Whimsey

 

whimsy, thank you for your reply. I'm taking it to a shop to have it looked at. I looked up the symptoms for a slave cylinder leak and i don't think thats my problem. I could not find any leaks anywhere and the clutch pressure seems good. To me it seems more like a stick problem than anything else but as said earlier i don't have much experience with manuals.

 

When is the last time you changed the oil in the transmission? Mine was hard to shift until I changed it. Pretty cheap fix if that is all it is.

 

hankcowdog, i have not changed the transmission oil yet but i'm going to tomorrow hopefully it will help. when i took it to the shop they said it was the shifter plates were going bad from the feel of it and that it was not worth getting fixed untill the transmission started slipping or grinding gears. he said to fix the plates it would take a trans rebuild and was not worth it yet. i tried to look up anything on the shift plates online but could not find any information. does anyone here know anything about them? because i could not find out anything online i'm doubtful on his diagnosis of the problem but i sure he knows more than me can anyone confirm what he said.

 

I changed my transmission fluid around 140,000 miles (really should not have gone that long) and it made a world of differnece. It took a couple of weeks for the new stuff to work around the gears. Hopefully that works for you.

Maybe a synchronizer is the same as a shift plate? Haven't heard of those.

 

Thank you hankcowdog for your help. I went ahead and took it to my dealer and they said the transmission, to my surprise, was covered so they are putting a new one. If i can get some more help, i am now noticing another problem. The check engine light (i belive its called a CEL) has been on since i bought the truck. When i had the code read it came back as low EGR flow. I have had cars with this simler problem before and it never seemed to effect the drive much, that i could tell, so i figured this was not a big deal. I am now thinking other wise i'm not sure if it's the EGR or what but if i accelerate fast or hard the truck seems to miss fire and accelerates rough. The CEL also flashes if i accelerate to fast or to hard usally on the freeway at higher speeds. I dont know if any of this is related to the EGR code but it's the only code i'm getting. Are truck more sensitive to low EGR flow than cars? Thank you all for your help and any more help will be appreciated.

PS. Sorry so long.