Clutch master cylinder

[wfloyd1845]

I have a 91 Ranger XLT that requires adding brake fluid to the clutch master cylinder about every 2 or 3 days. Sometimes it will go longer and sometimes more often. I can't find a leak anywhere. I have looked under the truck and inside the truck and under the hood with no success. The fluid has to be going somewhere? What will it take to fix the problem and how much money are we talking about?

 

[RangerX]

Usually, it's the slave cylinder that leaks. It's inside the trans, but hooked up to the master cyl. Are you having a hard time shifting?

Welcome to the site.

 

[RockRanger]

you have to drop the trans to swap out the slave cylinder. I think they run around $150 or so. If you are doing all that then you might as well put a new clutch in so thats another few hundred. Plus labor to do it if you dont do it your self. Also make sure you bench bleed the new one. I have heard that they can be a bear to blead if you dont do that first.

 

[wfloyd1845]

Thanks for the quick response. As long as there is fluid in the master cylinder, shifting is easy. I can tell when it is getting low because the pedal is much softer and shifting becomes harder.

Sounds like a major repair bill in the future. I don't want to get rid of the truck because it's been dependable and it only has 100,000 miles. For a 91 model that's not bad...Thanks again..

wfloyd1845

 

[RangerX]

You could fix it yourself. I did mine in December. I had never done any repair as major as I thought it was, but I couldn't afford to have someone else do it. After a good amount of reading up on it here, it came out fine. Think about it...

 

[Ranger Al]

It is not as painfull as it look like or as expensive. The clutch kit (pressure plate, pilot bearing, friction plate plate and alignment tool) go for $200 bucks and slave cylinder $69 bucks (made by a company in France for Ford). You might as well replace the master cylinder as well another $65 bucks. A case of iced cold beer another $20 bucks and about 5 hours of your time. Once you have the tranny down, it is a good time to replace those 3 pesky shift rail plugs with metal freeze plug (I think they are 5/8").

 

[aaronwilliam00]

I had a 93 and I was having the same problem. I kept adding fluid but it finally went. There is a little rubber boot on the slave and that boot just was pretty much gone. After that I had to double clutch to shift. Didnt replace it myself but it did cost a decent amount.

 

[Ranger Al]

The hardest part to remove all the extra parts, driveshaft, exhaust (v6 engine) and all the brackets. The job could be done by amatuer about a day.