What's up with my clutch?

2002 Ranger FX4, 4.0 V6, Mazda M50D-R1HD transmission. 

From the time I bought the truck in February, I've been pretty certain that the clutch catches at a different point depending on the gear. I've gotten used to this, although it is odd sometimes. 

Today was weird though. I went over to Dana's to fix the little ones bed, and instead of catching just off of the floor where it usually does, the clutch didn't catch until the pedal was almost the whole way up again, in 1st through 3rd. I thought that was strange, and decided to ask what would make that happen. 

But then on the ride home, it was back to catching just off of the floor again. So now I'm really confused. 

I checked the master and it's got fluid in it, in fact the only fluid I'm leaking at the moment is brake fluid from the rear drivers side wheel cylinder. 

Could it be the slave cylinder dying? Maybe something to do with the clutch itself? Does it have one of those rods I've seen mention of people adjusting on their old chevy's to change the catch point? Or is it just a 207k mile old Ford being quirky?

Does the pedal feel any different? Does it return normally (all the way to the top after you take your foot off or can you raise it higher if you pry up with your toe)? 

It's a concentric slave cylinder inside the bellhousing and it's failing.

We had a '96 F-150 go through two of them and the symptoms were what you described each time.

It will probably get stuck on the floor sooner or later as well.

In reply to EastCoastMojo :

The pedal feels fine, it comes back to where it should, and doesn't have any extra play or tightness in any direction. 

Sometimes when going into 1st from a dead stop I actually have to let the pedal up from the floor a bit to get the shifter to go into gear, but it's always done that. 

It just caught me as very strange today when I'm used to it catching like a third of the way back, and it didn't catch until the pedal was almost the whole way up like a miata. Then after sitting for 20 minutes it was back to normal. 

Trans_Maro said:

It's a concentric slave cylinder inside the bellhousing and it's failing.

We had a '96 F-150 go through two of them and the symptoms were what you described each time.

It will probably get stuck on the floor sooner or later as well.

That's what I was afraid of. I know I can just buy a slave cylinder, but is there anything else I should think about as a "while you're there" maintenance item? 

Check out the clutch and rear main seal.

You're going to be pulling the transmission out anyway.

usually its the throwout bearing or "release cylinder" that lets go long before the clutch does.  the repair books suggest replacing the pp/clutch, turn the flywheel and replace the pilot bearing while changing the throwout and release cylinder due to the effort required and that you'll already be in there.  

That actually sounds more like master cylinder than slave to me.  Either way it's almost certainly hydraulic related rather than mechanical.

In reply to APEowner :

Well I'll find out. Here I was happy having a little extra money this month and this happened.

Honestly I'm concerned, called the 3 shops I trust/that haven't ducked me over in the past, and none of them want to touch it ("not enough space" at 2, and just doesn't do anything with transmissions at the third), so I have to deal with an AAMCO, because I'm not doing this on my gravel driveway.  I guess the positive of that is that they are a transmission centered shop and Damn well better know what they're doing, but I'm scared of the hourly rate and where they'll be getting the parts because I've seen an almost 300% price difference for the same part number between stores. I've found people think I'm an Apple showing up with my own parts, on top of wildly differing pictures for the same parts.

When my slave cylinder went out on my 91 ranger with the same tranny the symptom was i couldnt get it into 1st gear from a stop or reverse, had to turn off the car.

Nothing youve said happened to me car

In reply to Antihero :

It's always been a fight to get into first and reverse, first being more problematic. Off or on, getting the shifter into first just sucks. My initial thought on that was a synchro, but no one has ever confirmed or denied that. Combining that PITA with the random catch point, and I'm convinced its a hydraulic issue somewhere. Since the master has fluid in it, leaves me questioning the slave. 

The big problem, I see right now, is that all the local transmission shops have garbage reputations, combined with the few Indy guys I trust not wanting to touch it. I may actually call the dealer for a quote.

I also am admittedly not well versed in manual transmissions, and while I guess I have the time to learn, lessons like this tend to be far more expensive and time consuming than I really want to put up with. Not to mention changing transmissions on gravel sucks. I've done it before and refuse to do it again. 

In reply to RevRico :

Mine was done by a shop, it was spendy too. I wanted to do it myself but my dad basically told me that instead of doing it ourselves, he would pay to have someone else do it. It was apparently a massive pain and my dad had them do more than i would have done myself(firewall was cracked which caused a starting problem years ago that i solved with a huge washer, he had them weld it) but the car has emotional value to me since it was my first truck. Plus i had bashed it for years getting our business started

The clutch was done too along with a bunch of other small stuff like the firewall. It cost $1300 and the guys that worked on it did a good job. Dealer quoted over $2000 and the hours needed were stupendously high at both and the shop that actually did it put in almost 80 hours on it. They told me it was the last Ranger 4x4 they were ever changing the clutch on.

Hearing all that makes me very happy that i didnt do it myself

So just to follow up some. I took the truck to a shop I sort of trust, he's a longtime member on the local off-road forum and competes in the gambler. He took it out for a ride, looked around inside and out then called me back.

"It shifts like E36 M3, but nothing is broken yet. If we're going to do this, let's do the full clutch kit and be done with it, be about a grand. If it was mine, I'd run it until it's really broken". 

Cool, so I went down to pick it up and he refused to let me pay him for the diagnostics work, just said to bring him some inspections or to send some other work his way. He also said he'll be bringing something out to play at our last rally cross of the year. 

So I guess I'm just going to deal with the randomness. I only put 2-3k on it annually, the ranger exists almost exclusively for hauling and play anyhow, and at that mileage he expects at least a year before I really need to worry. I also think he'll be happy when I show up randomly one day with a few pounds of pulled pork because I don't work for free and don't think anyone else should either. 

RevRico said:

So just to follow up some. I took the truck to a shop I sort of trust, he's a longtime member on the local off-road forum and competes in the gambler. He took it out for a ride, looked around inside and out then called me back.

"It shifts like E36 M3, but nothing is broken yet. If we're going to do this, let's do the full clutch kit and be done with it, be about a grand. If it was mine, I'd run it until it's really broken". 

Cool, so I went down to pick it up and he refused to let me pay him for the diagnostics work, just said to bring him some inspections or to send some other work his way. He also said he'll be bringing something out to play at our last rally cross of the year. 

So I guess I'm just going to deal with the randomness. I only put 2-3k on it annually, the ranger exists almost exclusively for hauling and play anyhow, and at that mileage he expects at least a year before I really need to worry. I also think he'll be happy when I show up randomly one day with a few pounds of pulled pork because I don't work for free and don't think anyone else should either. 

That's a good price and I like that he didn't charge for the consult or try to pressure you into repairing it right away.  I think you've found another shop to add to your list of trusted shops.

I had something like this happening on my 2 wheel drive '97 ranger with 4.0 liter. 

I ended up changing the clutch, the clutch master cylinder, the concentric slave cylinder that dis-engages the clutch and the pilot bearing.     I have about 70,000 miles on this clutch it and its starting to do weird stuff again.    Other than having to make a fixture to hold the transmission onto my floor jack when I re-installed it the job was really not that hard other than the clutch master cylinder.

The clutch master cylinder on this truck is a bear to change, a very frustrating operation to re-install.  You have to bleed it before you install it and it has to be upside down to bleed.  Then actually installing it to its position on the firewall into a small square hole involves pushing and twisting just the right amount to get it seated - a real pain in the tuchus.    

If your clutch isn't consistently releasing fully, then your synchros are doing some clutching they're not supposed to do. Do that long enough and it will shift like E36 M3 all the time (hmmm) right before they stop working entirely. So if you plan to drive it until it breaks, just keep in mind that what's going to break is the transmission, not the $50 slave cylinder (rockauto) or the clutch. I'd be looking for a spare trans with that plan...

If you decide to change that slave cylinder, there's a funny little release tool for the hydraulic line fitting you should make sure to have when you start the job.