89 ford ranger, 5 speed manual trans. Clutch needed to be replaced. When I drained the trans fluid, pieces of gear came out with the fluid. Opened the trans and found the bad gear. Replaced the gear and the clutch. installed the trans. Never touched the throw-out.

2 issues:
1) When bleeding the clutch, can't get a good bleed, and then found that the fluid was dripping out of the bell housing. Bad clutch line connection to the trans? When I dropped the trans, I left the clutch line connected to the trans avoid bleed problems...
2) Dropping the stick into the top of the trans, it appears to be in nuetral, but the truck seems to be in reverse (lurches backward a little when trying to start). Will this all work itself out when I get clutch pressure or do I need to drop the trans again to make sure the shift bands are lined up correctly?

**** UPDATE**** Reading another forum, it appears that issue #2 may be a simple matter of incorrectly installing the shifter, and can be lined up with a screw driver and re-installed. Still not sure why the fluid is dripping out of the bell housing when bleeding the clutch...

 

Since you left the clutch line connected, are you sure the line did not stretch/kink/break. The housing of the slave cylinder is made of plastic, and probably is not all that strong when pulled on.

 

I found the white disconnect collar on the tranny end of the clutch line, disconnected it, bled the line itself. Then I reseated the line into the slave and it bled fine. I must have pulled it loose partially while I had the tranny out of the truck.

For those that don't have the disconnect ring tool, I used a pair of needlenose pliers and evenly pushed the white collar in.... came loose fairly easily.