Strange Clutch Pedal Issue

[Eagle_Scout2002]

I have a 1999 Ranger 4.0 with the M5OD-R1 trans. I spent a bit of time searching and did not find anyone that has had a similar issue. This has been acting up a little lately. Normally (for about the 3 yrs since I bought this) the clutch pedal has about 1 1/2 inches of free travel. About 2 months ago or so I had a couple of weeks were the free travel on the pedal went to about 3-4 inches and it was hard to get into gear. Pumping the pedal returned it back to where it always was and it would go into gear fine. It did that for a couple of weeks and then changed. It quit what it was doing and went to no free travel on the pedal. It was like that for about month. Now about a two weeks ago, it went back to having about 1 1/2 inches of free travel and has stayed consistant for the last month. No leaks at either the master or slave cylinders. Tried bleeding the system and it bleed out fine. No air bubbles and good clear fluid. Anyone have any thoughts on what is going on with this? Are these clutches auto adjusting, and could that have anything to do with it? Thank you all for your time.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I don't have any thoughts on your specific problem and curing itself, but some things I've found on my own vehicle. I had a problem with increased free travel, it turned out to be a broken flange on the master. On another truck, increased travel was due to firewall flexing, there was a crack developing.

Richard

 

[dorman68]

This link might help.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=230092

 

[Eagle_Scout2002]

I checked out the link and will definentally have to look at that part. Thank you for posting that link up.