Alright, so hubby and I have 1996 f150. 4.9 XLT with a 5 speed transmission. We’ve done about it work to the truck since it is older and his dad didn’t really treat the truck very nicely. Anyway, we are now strangers to getting down and dirty in car and truck parts to figure out what’s going on. But this one has me a bit stumped. My hubby has me look up all the information on issues and such, he says I am better than the FBI, but on this one, not so much. He’s the brawn in the relationship and is way more mechanically minded than I am. So here’s what’s going on.


Two days ago I hopped in the truck to run some errands. I noticed the clutch pedal felt loose or soft. Normally, it has a good stiffness to it. I didn’t have a problem getting it in to any gears so I went on my merry little way. At first I didn’t really notice, at lower speeds, but the truck is acting like it is bogged down. Once I got to about 50 mph and shifted into 5th gear, I realized the truck was kind of revving higher and lower from time to time, like I was playing with the clutch. My foot wasn’t on it. I finished my errands and met my hubby at work and told him what was going on. I got back home with no real issue just that annoying bogged down feeling while in higher gears. We checked the fluid, it was a little low, we filled it back up, same issue. We replaced the master cylinder a few years ago and we aren’t seeing any leaking from it. Checked the pedal itself all up and down and there is no fluid there. We are going to be checking the slave for leaks this weekend. I’m just wanting to know if anyone else has had this experience. The clutch pedal isn’t stuck, it comes right back to where it should, it just soft with very little resistance. All gears shift in and out nicely, no grinding at all. I’m over here thinking the worst and hubby is trying to negotiate with himself and try everything else before getting to the actual issue. He does this a lot. It took him 18 months of playing with fuel pumps to finally listen to me and replaced the PCM. Guess what, after the PCM was replaced we were all good, until now. Sadly we have fallen on serious financial issues and this is our only running vehicle aside from motorcycles. Winter is coming and I personally just don’t like doing my grocery shopping on a motorcycle. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks and have a good day.

 

The clutch fluid may have just gotten low and now needs to be re blead?
A slight slave cylinder leak is common as is the fliuid loss
Work with it (bleeding) and replace all 4 pieces of the clutch when you can afford it

 

First thing you have to do is determine which slave release you have. Is the slave external or is the throw out bearing the hydraulic style?

 

These things are notorious for failure. I’ve only used Motorcraft ones over the years and they still seem to go every 50-60k.

Check the fluid level, it’s a closed system so if it’s low it went somewhere and usually that somewhere is in the bell housing. Note some of these guys have a little rubber diaphragm in them so you need to make sure you’re pulling that out before you top it off.

Now it could have just leaked out slowly over time and it’s sucked in some air and you might get lucky topping it off and bleeding it.

Top it off, pump it slowish 6-10 times and then open the bleeder. Let it run a little shut it off and repeat.

Hope that helps. If you do need a clutch I now it sucks but they’re not that bad and just replace it all. Rear main seal out.