Sudden issues with 92 2.3L 5 spd clutch or just throw out bearing and hydraulic portion of all?

All of a sudden depressing my clutch pedal isn't disengaging the clutch? At least not at first..the pedal felt weird when I depressed it..kinda floppy I guess and as I repeated pressing it sorta started working again.

The clutch disengages and I can shift just fine..no chatter or slippage etc but now the clutch suddenly engages as I just barely allow the pedal to come off the floor. Before there was more pedal travel and the clutch engaged when the pedal was further from the floor.

I looked at the fluid in the resevoir..its a little dirty and I used a turkey baster to remove what was there and replaced with clean fluid but "there was fluid". It wasn't run dry etc.

So is this just a case of needing to bleed the clutch line? or more? It does have a lot of miles since I last replaced it..the clutch I mean..Maybe 150K or so. And I think I have regularly heard that telltale throwout bearing noise but it hasn't been rediculously loud. I've been anticipating the need to replace all. Is this the time to replace all? Or just something with the hydraulic slave etc? that I can bleed or whatever without removing tranny etc.

What's the best way to proceed with diagnosis?

 

You can bleed it, but most likely it won't do any good, it sound like your master cyl may be going bad, and sucking air into it.

 

good advice-
wonder- is there a slave cylinder down at the clutch pivot area on the transmission- tricky thing to properly bleed that type clutch.

I'd get someone with a bit of knowledge on bleeding clutches to help you out
Like do a proper careful full bleed at the slave cylinder- see if the pedal will hold after- if not- you could have a hard time deciding which one is the issue-
there is also the possibility of a blocked, pinched, or collapsed flex line-
best to look for any possibility before before replacing

 

Thanks..but I didn't get a response for a while so I went ahead and bought all, because I figured its really got lots of miles on all and if the hydraulic system suddenly goes way off like it did then it must be damaged. I understand how to bleed all, but it shouldn't need bleeding under these specific circumstances..at least not in my experience with the truck.

I need it for work next week and don't want to gamble with it quitting on me, so I bought the clutch kit,slave, and throw out bearing this morning. All was $200 out the door at NAPA. And they had it in stock too..nice.

I'd planned rebuilding the motor this winter anyway..so I'll just get a little bit done now. Its pretty easy to get this done on the Ranger..at least it was last time..but I was younger!.. But still doable.

Thanks for the response

 

good luck
you might want to see about a machine shop resurfacing the flywheel
my Ranger like yours needed 2 clutch sets in 198,000 miles-
2nd clutch job I had the flywheel resurfaced
course we pulled a 5X8 enclosed trailer quite a bit
short of it- nice vehicle all around

 

Yes .. surfacing the flywheel goes without saying..IMO it should always be done. Its not expensive and if you go to the right place they can some times do it while you wait.

No reason to skimp on such an easy, but important step for sure.