Hard to shift

lentalsup · Jun 5, 2008

My ranger is a 99 with the 3.0 manual transmission. It is hard shift into 1st gear mostly while the engine is running. It also has some resistance shifting up and down through the other gears while driving. Coming to a stop, I sometimes have to turn the engine off and that somehow makes it easier to shift into first, then I can start it again while in first (clutch in obviously). I tried to blead the clutch fluid, that seamed to help a slightly, but that only lasted a couple of days. I don't notice any leaking under the truck. I was thinking it could be the slave cylinder or synchros. Any ideas? Any suggestions welcome. Thanks.

rotty_rott · Jun 5, 2008

I'm having the same problem with a '96 with the M5OD behind a 2.3. The guy brought it to me to replace the clutch but when pulling it into the garage found that the it was hard to put into gear with it running. There were no visible fluid leaks and with 178,000 miles on the truck I figured it was the slave cylinder. Pulled the tranny, put the new clutch/pressure plate and slave in. Put it all back together, bled the system and still have the same problem. The slave is moving the throwout bearing about a 1/2" or so and I don't think that's enough to disengage the clutch. The only thing in the system that isn't new is the master cylinder. I'm just trying to find some advice on if that is the culprit or not. Hate to have the guy buy a $72 master cylinder and that not fix the problem after he already bought the clutch set and a $75 slave cylinder, that didn't fix it.

lentalsup · Jun 5, 2008

rotty_rott said:
I'm having the same problem with a '96 with the M5OD behind a 2.3. The guy brought it to me to replace the clutch but when pulling it into the garage found that the it was hard to put into gear with it running. There were no visible fluid leaks and with 178,000 miles on the truck I figured it was the slave cylinder. Pulled the tranny, put the new clutch/pressure plate and slave in. Put it all back together, bled the system and still have the same problem. The slave is moving the throwout bearing about a 1/2" or so and I don't think that's enough to disengage the clutch. The only thing in the system that isn't new is the master cylinder. I'm just trying to find some advice on if that is the culprit or not. Hate to have the guy buy a $72 master cylinder and that not fix the problem after he already bought the clutch set and a $75 slave cylinder, that didn't fix it.

I've been looking through older posts, and I still have not found any good matches that had the same symtoms with the solution that fixed it. So if you ever do try out the master cylinder or find another solution, please post it. I haven't had time to pull out my tranny yet, but when I do, i'll post an update on my situation. I'll check out my master cylinder as well. Thanks for your input.

Will · Jun 6, 2008

When I bought my '91 it had a bad tranny. Turns out the clutch had torn through the firewall and the guy didn't know it. He had been forcing it in and out of gear as the clutch wasn't fully disengaging. I've know of several trucks of that era that had the problem.

Whatever it is, your clutch doesn't appear to be disengaging either. Could be air in the system or a bad master or slave.

Hard to shift

lentalsup

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rotty_rott

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lentalsup

10+ Year Member

Will

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