Clutch Assistance

A week ago I purchased a 1985 F250 4x4, 4 speed manual to use as a farm truck. It had the 6.9idi that was replaced about 5 years ago with a 1989 7.3idi (I describe why in my intro from registering last week). I got a pretty decent deal on the truck because of the handful of little things that needed attending too. Which is expected from a 36 year old truck that was the previous owners work truck. He owned it for 7-8 years and drove about 3,000-5,000 miles a year.

The most significant issue is the clutch not wanting to release when at a stop or slow speeds. This leaves me stuck in 1st or reverse. My work around at the moment is to make sure I come to a stop in neutral and double clutch when going into reverse or from reverse back to 1st. Worst cases are it gets stuck and won't release at all and I have to kill the motor, put it in neutral and then start it back up. This doesn't happen all the time, but frequent enough to make it annoying. Sometime too, the clutch pedal will stay at the floor and I have to use my toe to pull it back up. Fortunately, once she is going down the road, shifts both up and down are fine.

I checked the fluid level in the master cylinder and it looks fine. I also adjusted the rod from master cylinder to the clutch pedal pin pursuant to the technical service bulletin for the firewall reinforcement to makes sure it was at the correct length. In doing so, I noticed that the plastic bushing is a bit worn and the pin itself has a bit of wear to it as well. I have read that folks with the newer 90's trucks have done a heim joint (rod end) modification to allow some misalignment while deleting the worn pin. Has anyone done that to an 80's rig? It seems doable, I'd just have to figure out the rod thread diameter and thread pitch for the heim joint. Of course there would be drilling out the pin an installing a threaded bolt or other pin. Or is it better to go with a brass bushing (oilite) instead of the plastic and would it still work on a slightly worn out pin or would it just wear the brass bushing out too? Also, with the master cylinder to attached, cycling the clutch pedal, it seemed like it wanted to stop at the floor. I am not sure this is normal action or not?

I also observed that there is a little movement (maybe 1/8"-1/4") in firewall when the clutch is depressed. Inspecting the firewall, there are no cracks but a little rust has developed where the panel connect. As a precaution I ordered the reinforcement bracket from the Bronco Graveyard. So, I am hoping that will help.

From what I understand, the clutch, master cylinder, and slave cylinder were replaced and the tranny was rebuilt with new bearings about 7 years ago. What is the lifespan of the master and slave cylinder? Should I think about replacing those too?

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

it certainly sounds more like the clutch is not fully letting go of the disc keeping a ''load'' on the transmission. if you can turn the engine off and align the gears and re start then that's the biggest clue. start with just replacing the bad bushing for sure before redesigning anything. im more suspicious of the master cylinder than any other. maybe im just being hopeful in your behalf.

Thanks for the input.

I have been doing some further research today to see what it might be. I am going to try to bleed the system too and see if there is some air that got in there and is messing things up.

The clutch systems don't bleed easily - even if they have a bleeder screw, and not all do.  But if it does you can reverse bleed it by connecting a hose to the LF brake bleeder.  That's courtesy Bill/85lebaront2.