Sticky 5 speed

[53rdcard]

I recently got a 94 ranger from my wife's father, it was his pride and joy, has been treated very well and anything that ever needed to be replaced has been quickly every time, however he did say that the clutch might need replacing he noticed a change in its shifting right before he had surgery on his shoulder and decided to buy a new truck with an auto transmission.

It has 103k miles mostly interstate, runs very well, had a tune up right before I got it, and the only thing I have needed to do was flush the coolant.

Anyway I have noticed that when I first start the truck and drive anywhere everything is fine, after I have driven for a while and get to a point where I have to stop and start again, the first few times it has no problems, but after a bit of start and stop driving it starts to get hard to shift into 2nd out of first, if I pump the clutch peddle it goes away, or if I press it hard it goes away. It only ever does it after you have driven for around 20 minutes or so, then only some times. It goes from a nice fluid movement like say a knife through water, to something more like you are moveing through honey or something thick like that. No grinding or stoping me from shifting, just slugish.

From looking around I have read that it could be several things from parts needing to be replaced, to the fluid needing to be changed, I don't know exactly when that was done last so it is very possible that it does need a fluid change.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[PickupMan92]

do you know the last time the clutch was replaced? If it has never been you might want to look into a Clutch kit. I bought mine it came with the slave cylinder, clutch alignment tool etc. I got it off ebay, was LUK brand. You also might want to do some searhcing on here about bleeding the clutch because it can be a MAJOR, I mean MAJOR pain in the rear.

[972.3XLT]

honestly, its easy to bleed the rangers clutch system.
but i don't think thats the problem, mine did the same thing.

it was due to cheap fluid being in the trans, i put some synchromesh in it and now its smooth as butter.
mine only had the problem once the trans warmed up, my guess is the fluid thins out to much, idk.

[53rdcard]

As far as I know it hasn't been replaced and I have no idea when the fluid was changed or even if it was, so I will start with that, after all even if it doesn't solve the problem, it still needs to be done would be my guess, when I got the truck the antifreeze was a bit rusty from the long time between flushing's, think its kind of funny how her dad would always change the oil every 3k, and all the other normal maintenance stuff like plugs wires, brakes, and so forth, but something like the coolant and possibly the trans oil are things he overlooks, and if the problem persists I will have the clutch replaced

Thanks for the information

Also guessing here that when I take it to get the trans oil changed it would be a good idea to take the oil I want to have put in it to the place, I don't really have a place to do it myself, well that and the average temp where I live is in the high 90's to 100's right now with high humidity, don't really want to stay out in it for long if you know what I mean.

[Tempest]

Changing the oil on the manual trans is easy. A top and bottom bolt and that is it. About 15 min. tops.

I am using the Amsoil MTF and am very happy with the results. The oil quality makes a big difference in shifting.

[53rdcard]

Been checking around and it looks like royal purple syncromas is highly recominded, so im going to change the fluid with that and see what happens, i am more and more convenced that it is a fluid issue the more i read and the more i drive it, it only ever seems to have issues when it gets hot, when i first got the truck the temp was around 80-90 for the first couple of weeks, and i didnt really ever notice much, however the last few weeks it has been 90-100 and this week it has been over 100 every day, in these conditions when i drive the truck it gets worse. Going to change the fluid tonight or in the morning, its probably in the 80's at that time.

Thanks for the help everyone.

[davefout]

I had the very same problem in a Mazda 2300...I changed out the trans fluid to Mobil 1 ATF and problem solved.

[DaGGer]

yeah, are transmission are knowen for being a bit of a PITA. Grinding going into gears, being rather loud and not having a smooth shifting. I just got with the fact that is a truck.

[djsk8r33]

yeah, are transmission are knowen for being a bit of a PITA. Grinding going into gears, being rather loud and not having a smooth shifting. I just got with the fact that is a truck.

uh spell check much?