Hello all. First post here, but not my first Ford.

Just recently I was given a `96 F-150 with the I6 and 5-speed manual transmission by my late grandfather. I drove it around for about a week with no issues at all (solid trucks!). I parked it for about a week and a half until I got time to get emmissions for the tag and all that. Upon parking it, the truck was perfectly fine; now I hop in and realize that the clutch instantly springs to the floor and stays there. I'm able to pull it back up with minimal effort, and it will stay up. Almost as if there's a fine line "breaking point" halfway through the pedal travel that decides if the pedal will stay on the floor or all the way up...no real in between. Regardless the pedal motion has no clutch resistance (feels like a "cammed" spring is all) and does not disengage the clutch.

Fluid level is fine so there are no leaks. And it's odd that everything worked fine when it was parked. I'm led to believe that the master and slave are fine since the fluid level has gone unchanged. Or at least that's what I hope with me not seeing an external slave. Is this something common? And simple I hope!

Thanks,
Tyler

 

Does not have to leak fluid to fail. Just like your brake system, it has rubber cups inside the master and slave cylinders. If either cup failed, it will not function and not likely leak either(at least not at first). Keep pumping the pedal and it might start to show signs of leaking by the outer seal.

 

Sounds like the clutch push rod has failed. Its attached to the clutch pedal with a plastic bushing and goes through the fire wall above the gas pedal to the clutch MC. Mine broke and I was able to replace with it with a JY one. The rod is sold with the MC as an assembly.
Regards
rikard

 

This is more likely. You can probably replace the bushing. I priced one from ford years ago and it was outrageous. Autozone has them in the HELP section. The last one I got came in a set of several different bushings.

 

I used one from a set of windshield wiper bushings #49447.
Not sure if this same 4 fingered clip fits those later plastic pushrod M/C's

 

Pumping the pedal won't prove anything. The pedal does nothing to the hydraulics as far as I can tell.

 

Tyler,
Poke your head under the dash between the gas and brake pedals.
Look for where the clutch belcrank attaches to the master cylinder pushrod.

 

Can anyone show me where this comes through the firewall and what this looks like? I've got a pretty bad back so searching around gets tough unfortunately.

 

Are the white pieces the bushing you are referring to?

I can watch the piston move in and out of the firewall as I move the clutch pedal forwards and backwards.

 

Heres a thread on the same thing, has a couple pics. It is up under the dash a ways but easy to find, just move the pedal a little while you're looking down there. Mine did it last year, I ended up just putting a cotter pin in the groove on the rod where it goes thru the hole.


https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...136&styleid=19

 

The bushing/retainer we are talking about is where the piston rod meets the rusty arm in photos 2&3.
Pushrod should be almost tight against the arm.
Your picture makes it look ready to fall off.

If that connection is tight and without slop, then you are likely looking at a failed master just as freighttrain said.

The 'piston' is inside the master cylinder, on the engine side of the firewall...

 

If its the part I'm thinking of you can see it in your 2 middle pics. Almost right in the middle of pic. The black piece that goes up & connects to clutch pedal linkage. Looks like its connected in pics though.

 

The black piece with the electric connection that guides the piston does move around a little bit when moving the pedal. Is that an issue?

 

The piston connection to the arm was a little loose. I fixed that with no help. It must be something hydraulic. So master or slave? At the very bottom of the pedal travel you begin to feel slight hydraulic resistance but very similar to what you would feel at the top normally.

 

The black piece with the wires is the clutch interlock.
The truck won't start until it hits the lip at the firewall.

If the slave were leaking the fluid would go down.
Good for you too.
Pulling the transmission to replace it is a PITA.