Hey everyone, just as I was SUPPOSED to be leaving for work this morning, I had a problem. I went out to start my truck because it was very cold last night (coldest it's been since I bought the truck last week) and I let it warm up for 5 min. or so. When I went back out to leave I pushed the clutch in and it stayed to the floor, so I manually pulled it back up, pumped it a few times to try it again. Can't get it into to gear so obviously the clutch wasn't disengaging. I jumped out checked the fluid, it was low. I put some fluid in, same problem. Also the pedal is very weak, waaay to easy to push in.

What am I looking at here? I'm sort of assuming it's one of three things, Master, Slave, or contaminated fluid (maybe water in it and the cold temp froze it?)

Any help would be appreciated....I really hope I don't have to drop the transmission on this thing, I just got it and don't have the time or tools so I'd have to shell out the cash.

Thanks in advance!


Update - just went out to look at it again and the cap on the master clutch cylinder turns very easy with no effort at all from stop to stop. Should it be tighter than that? Perhaps it's not holding pressure?

 

There have posts similar to yours over the past few months. Very cold nights seem to be a common theme.
From what I remember the solution was to bleed the clutch system. The old fluid would automatically replaced when bleeding, maybe that has something to do with it.
Hope this helps.

 

YES, I would try bleeding first. Since you mentioned the ease of the Master cylinder cap, maybe moistrure got in there. Do you have a diaphram in the reservoir, if not, you may need to get one. Check around the Master and slave cylinders for leaks. It may or may not be obvious. If you don't see anything that may be good. Assuming the master or slave hasn't been touched since you got it and I don't know the year (it doesn't matter anyways) they may need to be replaced. BUT before you do, drain the old fluid out, mainly by opening up the slave bleeder screw and let the fluid flow out. When the fluid gets low in the reservuoir refill with good fluid. Let it get ALMOST empty, but not TOTALLY empty before refilling. IF you let it get totally emplty you will introduce more air, which we want to avoid. A partner would help here. Once you refill, let it get pretty low as well to ensure that you only have fresh fluid in the system, then top off. Once the fluid is fresh, start the bleeding process, make sure the reservoir doesn't empty. If the pump doesn't harden up, then you have a cylinder problem. The slave is usually the first culprit, since it is the one that activates the clutch. If you have a internal slave, you probably already know you will need to drop the tranny. There aren't any special tools required besides a tranny jack. But I didn't use one on mine, I used regular floor jack. If you could, while replacing the slave replace the master as well. I even went as far as the hydraulic line as well. Also, if you can bench bleed the slave, and master before you put then in, that would save you a lot of time. Hope this helps.

 

My 'Lil Raven doesn't like the cold, either, but I am patient, and let 'er warm up and all turns normal with the shifting/clutch operation. (It was so cold this morning, my turn signals wouldn't work till it warmed up to temp.)

 

Sorry everyone, in my haste this morning I forgot to tell you the truck, not that it matters much at this point but it's a 95 F150 with 4.9L and 5spd. I have thursday off and it's supposed to warm up a bit over the next couple days so I'll see what happens, and maybe try bleeding the system. The master does have the diaphram, and I noticed no leaks around or near the master. The old fluid in it was very murky though. Thanks for all the help so far

 

what was the outcome of your troubles or houw'd you fix it? i had the same problem this morning and i have the same year truck, motor, and tranny..