Boggy clutch

[hurron]

OK, I drive for a while with no troubles and park. After about 5-15 minutes of not running, I attempt to drive again. The clutch will initially work fine and engage properly. But then I will have no response at all when I engage the clutch, and it feels like I am pushing much harder on the clutch. It feels like I am pushing against a shock. With time, a few minutes, the clutch will begin to engage again and soon work perfectly normal.

What is causing my clutch to not work properly?

'97 Ranger XLT, 2.3 L, 5 speed manual. 110,000 miles.

 

[GatorBlue92]

air in the line? what year truck and what motor? it could be a slave on the way out but im not sure since the problem comes and goes

 

[TireIron]

So the clutch pedal gets much harder to push and the clutch doesn't want to release? or the clutch doesn't want to catch and hold?

 

[hurron]

i release the pedal and it does not catch, when it has the problem.

Maybe I should mention that my truck is now my secondary vehicle and I drive it much less than I did 2 months ago.

Also, the clutch cylinder was a little low, but still visible in the fill cup. I refilled it to the neck of the fill cup.

 

[baddis]

could your throw out bearing be sticking somehow ?

 

[hurron]

i am not familiar with the throwout bearing.

I guess the strangest thing for me is that it worked perfect for the past 8 years, and its only since I have not been driving it much that this problem has occurred.

 

[baddis]

maybe oil leaking onto the flywheel somehow?

 

[hurron]

how would the oil cause these symptoms?

 

[baddis]

i release the pedal and it does not catch, when it has the problem..

if oil is somehow getting onto the flywheel it would cause the clutch to slip. but usually this would cause it to slip all the time. but after re reading your post i would think the problem would end up being in the slave cylinder and throw out bearing

 

[Explorin94]

Usually a throwout bearing will squeal when it goes bad, therefore I don't see the bearing being bad. My guess would be your slave cylinder or clutch master cylinder are getting bad. You could also bleed the clutch system if you already haven't and see where that take you.

 

[TireIron]

it's not an issue with air in the hydraulics if the clutch is not CATCHING, normally if there is air or another issue with the hydraulics the clutch will not RELEASE. Somethign has to be physically sticking or wrong with the clutch in the bellhousing. The only really way to tell whats going on is to pull the tranny out. You can try taking a look through the inspection port but you wont see much unless there is something physcially broken with the slave or throw out bearing.

 

[MAKG]

Well, you can see if the slave moves or not....

 

[TireIron]

I guess there could be something in the hydraulic line or slave thats blocking the fluid from releasing keeping the clutch depressed... or possibly something broken or sticking int he master cylinder keeping the fluid pressurized and also not releasing the slave. It might be something in the line thats not always blocking, but floating around and every now and then plugging up a hole or line keeping the pressure in.

 

[hurron]

I inspected the clutch fluid level and noted that it was a little low, added some.

I also changed the oil after finding out that the "nice people" at firestone put in the wrong oil. Whether it would make a difference I don't know, but I replaced with the correct 5w30.

I have been driving around yesterday and today with no troubles, so, we'll see.