Now what did I do?

[Dav]

Have the M5OD in the truck (95 2wd 2.3). New clutch, new drive shaft, new shift kit. Drove the donner around so I know the trans is good. But it will not come out of reverse. Found it was in reverse when I tightened the crank bolt on the balancer. While the trans was out, I power washed it. Could rolling it from side to side make something fall out of place? I bled the clutch master with it out-it's more like purging than bleeding. But I bled the slave cylinder after everything was back together. Sure it's something simple that I am overlooking. But what?

 

[franklin2]

Usually when a shifter is stuck in a manual trans, it's because one of the other shift forks is not in the neutral position. There are interlocks inside the trans to keep from being able to put it in two gears at once.

While you had the trans out, if one of the other shifter forks got jostled out of position, the trans may think it's in two gears at once and will not let the shifter move. I would pull the shifter and make sure everything is in the right place.

 

[Dav]

Makes sense. How will I know what it should look like after I pull the shifter? And, if it looks like something is out of line, how do I get it where it should be?

 

[franklin2]

Pull the shifter. It should have a ball looking thing underneath. And you will see where the ball thing moves back and forth in the trans. Make sure it's free to move, if there is a shift fork out of line, just move it manually with a screwdriver.

You will want to put blocks of wood not against the tires, but close to them so the truck will not roll away. And when you are in the trans trying to move the forks by hand, you may need someone outside rocking the truck back and forth to take the pressure off the geartrain so you can move the guts of the trans by hand.

 

[Dav]

my daughter is going to help me. I will jack up the right rear wheel so she can rock it. at this point, that is an easy attempt. but the more I think about it, the more I convince myself that I didn't do the clutch bleeding right

 

[franklin2]

If you take the strain off the driveline by jacking one wheel up, you should still be able to pull it out of gear, even if the clutch is not working. As long as the driveshaft rocks a little bit back and forth it should come out.

 

[Shran]

Did you have the shifter stub pulled out at any time?

Weird problem. If two gears are engaged at once, it should just lock up the trans. Does it drive in reverse or is the shifter just stuck there?

 

[Dav]

ok, turns out to be 2 problems. somehow knocked the trans into 2 gears. did the screwdriver trick to get it back into neutral and reassembled the shifter. it now goes into all gears correctly. problem number 2 is the clutch. it is not disengaging. so in the am i will pull it out and rebleed the master. i will try to get the slave full of fluid before i disconnect the line so air can not go back into the line when i reconnect it
Shran; i took the shifter out when i pulled the trans from the donner. while out, i power washed the trans so i rolled it around a bit. i reinstalled it by way of the engine compartment instead of from under the truck, then installed the shifter and found i had a problem

 

[franklin2]

These slave systems are very hard to bleed. Get as much air out as you can, but don't be too disappointed if it still doesn't work. Best thing to do is drive it. I don't know where you live, but if you are where there is not much traffic it would be ideal.

Start it up in gear and take off, matching rpms and shifting while trying to use the clutch. As you drive it over bumps and up and down hills, the air bubbles will work themselves back up the line and come out on top of the reservoir fluid.

If you can't take off in gear, what I have done is started it in neutral, push in on the clutch (hopefully you have a little bit of clutch action) and then put the trans in 5th or 4th gear. It's won't be happy about it, but the higher gears will be easier to get it in. Once you get it in gear the trans will be stopped. You can then very quickly pull it out of 4th and go to 3rd. You have to hurry up, you can't let the trans start turning. If you need to you can then quickly go from 3rd to 2nd. Just try to get it going so you can drive it. If you have a field you can drive it in that would be ideal.

When I did mine by the time I went around the block and got back, all was good.

 

[Rick W]

Before you rebuild the master cylinder, check this out. I have the same problem with my 93 “tractor trailer” project.

There are a couple weird but good videos on YouTube on how to bleed the system. The master cylinder design is poor because the way it slopes, it catches an air bubble at the isolated top end that is hard to flush out. When you bleed it, the fluid flows across one end of the cylinder, not through the whole cylinder.

A couple things I picked up. Most of these videos call for using a turkey baster or something like that. In the reservoir cup, it calls for putting the tip of the turkey baster into the drain hole and actually forcing brake fluid in and through the system.

It also calls for cycling the clutch pedal while you have the slave drain open, connected tube inserted to a jar brake fluid. Slip a tube over the open slave cylinder bleed fitting, and put the other end of the tube into a jar that is full of brake fluid, so that air can’t be drawn back into the system from below. Think of using a plunger in the toilet. You don’t just push it one way if you’ve got a bad clog, you work it back and forth and eventually the blockage goes through. On the ranger, the brown stuff is the air bubble.

The third of the couple ideas is, before you bleed the system, disconnect the master from the pedal, and pull the two bolts on the firewall, and simply tilt the cylinder the other way without disconnecting it from the hydraulics (so the down end is up and the up end is down). Then if you use the two methods above, any bubble would be in the right end of that cylinder to be forced out by forcing fluids through or pumping it back and forth. With the slave bleed connected with a tube into the jar of fluid on the ground, it’s easy to push the master cylinder back and forth with just your hand.

These videos also advise you to really make sure that you keep that teeny tiny reservoir full in the process. If you are doing it by yourself, you can rig a 2-liter pop bottle with a hose off the tip, put a pint of break fluid in, and invert it with the tip below the fluid level in the reservoir, but above the reservoir drain. Use a big enough hose (1/2”?) that if the level drops in the reservoir below the tip, it will dribble out of the bottle.

I have two thoughts in addition. That teeny tiny reservoir is probably half the problem, not enough extra fluid for the tiniest little issue. I plan to go to the pull a part and get a reservoir out of something else more the size of one of my Lincoln town cars, and rig it in. If I’m not mistaken, on the Ranger it is not part of the master cylinder, it’s connected with hose.

My plan: harbor freight sells a little fluid pump ($5 ?) that works with a squeeze ball, like the doctor uses when he checks your blood pressure. When I do mine, I’m planning on connecting that pump in a loop. When I do mine, I’m planning on tilting the cylinder up, connecting the suction on the slave bleed valve, and routing the discharge back into the reservoir, and pumping the hell out of it with a motion I’ve developed well with my right hand, while making sure the reservoir stays full with the pop bottle. I will probably alternate that with simply pumping the master cylinder with the jar underneath to prevent sucking up air.

My two cents, Hope this helps.

 

[4x4prepper]

> i reinstalled it by way of the engine compartment instead of from under the truck

Not quite sure how that works? But, I thought I would chime in that to make sure you filled the transmission back up.

What I have found bleeding the clutch, is it works much better on ramps with the nose up and it makes it easier to bleed and install the master. When I was fixing an Alfa Romeo that had a Ford 2.8L transplant, he had carried the slave bleeder up into the car so he could bleed it from the driver's seat. Just an idea if you have a hard time doing it.

 

[franklin2]

This can be so difficult to bleed, when I did my 5 speed swap from my 86 ranger to my 84 BII, I actually kept the system together and intact. I installed the hydraulic throwout bearing from the 86 onto the trans, and had the reservoir and the master all hanging from the trans. As I was moving the trans forward under the truck installing it, I had to reach up and fish all the hydraulic junk up through beside the engine. And as I moved forward more, I had to go up to the engine bay and kept fishing all that stuff up through and getting it routed correctly.

Rather a pain, and I didn't know if the components would survive, but they did and it worked out great and didn't have to bleed it at all. Lost a little bit of fluid from the reservoir but not much.

 

[Rick W]

What I have found bleeding the clutch, is it works much better on ramps with the nose up and it makes it easier to bleed and install the master.

Question for 4x4prepper: how do get it up on the ramps if the clutch is dead?

 

[pjtoledo]

jack it up, put ramps under tires.
if jack doesn't go high enough keep adding big boards under alternate sides until its high enough for ramps.
sometimes you have to get creative. just don't use bricks or cement blocks.