Hydraulic line issues 96 Ranger 3.0 5 Speed 2wd

[J_giles51]

Omw to work the other morning, went through a light. Shifted 1st to 2nd and my clutch pedal locked up hard as a rock. While waiting for a tow truck, I noticed my hydraulic line had disconnected from the slave cylinder. No matter how hard I tried it wouldn't go back in. Once I got home, I was messing with it again and a spring and a spacer with an o-ring fell out of the slave cylinder. (Pictures of the two are included) I tried putting them back in along with the line but still no luck. I ordered a new S/S braided hose and installed that today, a tight fit into the slave without the spring and spacer. I thought I'd finally won so I started bleeding but never built pressure. Can somebody please help me figure this out?

 

[RonD]

There should be nothing like that in the slave, but never pulled that connection apart

The valve is on the hose from Master, which has a spring, this is to prevent fluid from running out of the master when the hose is disconnected from the slave
And why you couldn't push clutch pedal down after hose came off, the valve was closed so no place for the fluid to go

So after you put on the new hose and it was locked in place
You need to open the bleeder on the slave and put a pan down under it
Then open the clutch reservoir and pull out the Air Bladder(cup)
Fill reservoir with fluid and let system gravity bleed for a few minutes
Close the bleeder on the slave
See if you have some pedal back

If not then have a friend press clutch pedal down to the floor and hold it down
Open bleeder on slave, should have a nice strong squirt of fluid out the bleeder
If not you have a BIG leak(look for fluid dripping out) or Master is bad

 

[J_giles51]

This video helped a ton!

I took the master cylinder/reservoir/slave hydraulic line out. I took the whole system and hung it on a wall in the garage with two nails through the fastener holes for the reservoir. I took the reservoir cap off to watch for bubbles coming up, inverted the master cylinder and and pumped the pushrod until I couldn't anymore, then I tapped the lines and cylinder with a wrench to make sure any trapped bubbles were out. Once I didn't get anymore bubbles, I put everything back in the truck and gravity bled about two reservoirs worth of DOT3. (Make sure you don't let the reservoir empty or you'll have to do this all over again) Filled it back up and checked the pedal and finally I had pressure! So I grabbed a serpentine belt wrench to help me bleed the clutch by myself (pump the pedal a couple times then wedge the wrench between the seat and the pedal while you crack the bleeder valve on the slave. This can be done with anything long enough to keep the pedal to the floor). Bled it twice, filled it back up and I was finally able to put the truck in gear.