1995 f150 4.9L 5speed 4x4 short bed with 107k miles

Ok so here it is. I jump into my truck and out of the blue the clutch pedal goes to floor as I'm driving it and then it's stuck in gear. I flip the clutch back up and then I have almost No clutch. Then it either barely shifts or acts like the clutch Pedal I used in reverse. Clutch in to drive out To shift. I stop and pull over. And check the clutch master cylinder. That little rubber thing attached to the cap was sucked to the bottom of the bowl, no fluid. I thought ok I must have a leak but couldn't find a drop of fluid anywhere. Refilled it, pumped the clutch, drove it with half a clutch length to my house bled the air from the clutch slave. Drove fine till again today it did the same exact thing. No fluid leaked anywhere. Seems to only happen in the morning and only in first and second.

So my question is. Would these sysmptoms be the clutch master cylinder, clutch slave, pilot bearing or......?

 

when you say that no fluid leaked anywhere, does that mean that your master cylinder is still up at the proper level ? if so, the first thing i would do is get down into the footwell and look up where the clutch actuating lever meets the master cylinder push rod. there's a plastic bushing there that gives up after 25 years or so. make sure that it is still there and completely intact.

 

I had a similar situation with my '92, 300, M5OD. It sat a lot at that time and the fluid would leak/disappear.

On a fluke, I decided to bleed it manually a few times, ensuring that I kept it full and topped off. Ended up running, maybe about 2 cap fulls of Marvel mystery oil through the line and made sure that it was completely flushed. Topped it off when where the rubber plug goes in and it hasn't ever given me another problem in 4 years.

I can't explain why it would leak or disappear. Hopefully other members can chime in why it's doing it. I just never asked.

Results will vary, but it did work for me.

 

I just had this happen to me last night when I moved my truck. The pedal went to the floor and didn't come up. I was able to pick the pedal up by hand and I pumped it a few times and it didn't happen again. I drove it this morning and it was fine. It was too dark to check for leaks plus it was snowing. I know I had topped it off a few months ago but it wasn't really seriously low. I also drove it last week without issues. I hope it was just a fluke. I'd hate to have to pull the tranny to get to the slave if that was the issue.

 

Had to do just that, didn't have the time or motivation to do it myself. so it casted me $500 to get the new clutch slave and throw out bearing replaced. a little hefty u thought but they did good work.

 

If you got any kind of transmission work done by a shop and you got out for $500, I would say that is pretty cheap. Labor is $100/hour around here.

 

There's no way I'd pay $500 to do any kind of work on my truck but that's just me.
I had the pedal go down again. This time it left me stranded. Good thing for AAA, free towing. The m/c was almost empty. No visible signs of any leaks. I bled it and it's working again. Some here have told me it's the slave. If that's the case, it's time for another truck. What genius came up with a concentric slave?? It was bad enough they used plastic parts for m/c.

 

Me either b/c nobody works on my vehicles except me. However not everyone is capable and/or has the facilities to do trans R&R.

Surely you jest. If you understand the mechanics of the "old" setup with the arm and ball, the concentric slave IS genius. It greatly contributes to better pedal feel and clutch longevity.

What state are you in? I have a friend who is looking for a truck just like yours. I can take care of that leaking slave cylinder if you don't want to mess with it.

 

I'm not even sure the slave is leaking. I've even pulled the inspection cover off the bottom of the bell housing and it's dry. I can R&R the transmission but I don't want to. It's just too much work for me to justify it.
I don't feel the concentric slave is a good idea. What good is it if the clutch outlasts it? The transmission still has to come out. The m/c and slave wore out before the clutch did on the 85 I had from new. It just took only about 20 minutes to swap out because the slave was on the outside. The thing that pissed me off then was I could only get the parts from the dealer at the time and that took over a week.
The truck's in SW WA state if your buddy wants to drive out here.

 

Mine was doing the same for a few years. I just learned how to drive it that way. It lasted a few years, until the bellhousing cracked from a bent driveshaft. $1100 later, and I had a replaced housing and rebuilt transmission...took the shop a few weeks to get the job done due to getting the wrong case at first, but in the end, I'm happy with the results.

 

If it didn't seem like I needed to fix another thing once I fix one thing, I'd probably go through the entire clutch system. It had a new clutch when I got it 6 years ago. The clutch slave only had about 50K miles on it since that's what the truck had the ZF came from.
I try to stick it out through winter and then sell it. Prices for 4X4's right now are ridiculous so whatever I get for my truck would just go to pay the extra they're asking for.