A few weeks ago, my truck stopped releasing it's clutch all together, and the worst part it was on a hill.

I limped the old girl home, and from what I can tell, the hydro set is working properly.....no lack of pressure in the pedal one bit, if anything, it's got strain on it, I've come down to either my pressure plate is toast or it's my throwout bearing, I'm willing to bet it was my throwout bearing, due to the whirring sound in neutral, I had gone offroading prior to this, and as my brother says, "it's stupid to go off-roading in your daily driver, but we are guys, and we don't care either way and go off and do it anyways"

but now I'm having another problem, I was sitting in my truck this morning, wishing the old girl could move again, going through the gears (daydreaming) i notice it's extremely stiff going into 5th, and Reverse, and after getting it out of reverse i'm blocked off from 3rd and 4th until I put pressure onto reverse, shift in and out, and then i'm ok.

Any ideas? my shifter bushing is about 2mos old, and I pulled the pin plate off, it's fine, i'm gonna pull it off again to be sure my guide pins are set right, I shaved one in February while trying to avoid an accident.

and I am unsure if the guy tapped it in properly, after he replaced it, it just didn't feel the same.......

any ideas and/or proper advice is promptly appreciated.

 

Have you checked the bushing on the clutch pedal? Those commonly wear out and though it seems like the pedal is connected and working it isnt pushing far enough to fully dis engage the clutch.

The bushing is located right above where the gas pedal goes through the fire wall, it connects the push rod for the master cylinder to the stud on the pedal. You can get one from ford for $11, or like i did, make a new stud and bushing that works better. Also check the stud for wear, the metal gets deformed and will just continue to eat bushings until its replaced.

 

not too sure on the clutch, but the tranny sounds like top shift plate issues to me--had a similar deal happen to me with the gears not shifting right, got a new top plate and all is good now. May look there.

 

By top shift plate, are you referring to the entire top hat of the transmission? Other then that there really isnt a top shift plate on a M5OD.

We're dealing with two issues here, the clutch and the transmission,

On the transmission, I swapped my M5OD after i sheered the shifter guide pin. The symptoms of it where similar to what your describing, With it in 1st, 3rd, or 5th i could push the shifter up and hit the dash. I had a terrible time shifting onto 3rd, it would grind like crazy. And the shifter was super loose all over.

I would check those guide pins first. Its really easy to do, you can either take just the shifter and boot off, or take the whole trans tunnel off for ease of access. As for it being funny about reverse, there is a little arm that doesn't allow you to go from R to 5th, or 5th to R, without shifting to a lower gear like 1st or 2nd. It can also do funny things when trying to shift improperly like you describe, i took mine off.

As for the clutch, look into that bushing, see what it looks like.

 

well that could explain me having to stand on the clutch pedal in order to trigger my safety switch......but idk if it would explain the groaning sound coming from the transmission.

If you are speaking of the plate that is held in by 3 torq screws with a rubber bushing in the middle, mine DOES need replaced........

Well I am thinking for this time, having the clutch problem fixed, and drive it as long as I can until I can get ALL the parts for my 351W/ZF swap.

Thanks guys, your advice is greatly appreciated and I am going to review all these in my truck asap.

 

Where you at? I have a 2wd small block ZF. PM me if your interested.