Need quality clutch master and/or slave cylinder

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I have a 2001 Ford Ranger with a manual transmission. The original slave cylinder went out at 70,000 miles and was replaced only to be eaten by a blown release bearing 10,000 miles later. At that time the slave, release bearing, and clutch were replaced. Then we discovered that the master cylinder was leaking and that also was replaced, all about at 80,000 miles. Around 100,000 miles the master cylinder was leaking again and had to be replaced.

Now at 119,000 miles I have a new clutch hydraulics leak. I am not sure if it is the slave or the master but it will get hard to put into first gear, so I will pump the pedal about 40 times and it is good for a day. Then I have to do it again. So, I am taking it in and hoping it is the master as that is a lot cheaper to replace.

The question is, what brand master or slave is going to go the long haul? I don't want to have to replace clutch hydraulic components every two years. I want something to last the remaining life of the truck.

My 1984 F100 had hydraulic clutch linkage and I never had any trouble with it. The hydraulics lasted over 200,000 miles without even a fluid change. Is this what the world has come to? Everything is junk? Surely the Mustang drivers won't put up with cheap clutch hydraulics. There must be good parts out there. Is the answer to get genuine Motorcraft parts? I don't know what brand parts were put in before but I bet they were not Motorcraft.
 
My 1993 Ranger has a 5.0 swap, with a "King Cobra" pressure plate, and a 280ZX slave cylinder.

The original clutch master started acting up around 120,000 miles or so, and by luck I found one on ebay (Genuine Ford) and swapped it in (around 2006 or 07?)... It's still holding up well. I'm pretty sure I did a new slave at the time because I wasn't sure which component to blame.
 
Having to pump up but not losing fluid means that the master has an internal problem.
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Go with the genuine Ford parts. They are not Motorcraft, but blue label Ford Genuine.


+1 Don't even think about something from the aftermarket for it.
 
Originally Posted By: mk378
Having to pump up but not losing fluid means that the master has an internal problem.

Yeah, last time it was leaking out under the dash where the shaft goes in.
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Go with the genuine Ford parts. They are not Motorcraft, but blue label Ford Genuine.


Please educate me. I have never heard of the "blue label" Ford Genuine. Would this be from the dealership, Or do they sometimes pawn off Motorcraft parts on unwary people?

As a side note on parts quality, about 12 years ago I had an Aerostar and the fuel pump went out. Shop put in two Carter fuel pumps (supposedly a quality brand). Both were bad. Then they got a Motorcraft pump which worked for years with no problems.
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Go with the genuine Ford parts. They are not Motorcraft, but blue label Ford Genuine.

The truest post you will see on the subject. Ford replacement parts will cause the customer to complain one time...when the bill is paid. Aftermarket parts will cause the customer to complain a few months or a year later, when there is a problem with the parts, especially the slave cylinder parts.
If you are completely allergic to genuine Ford replacement parts, roll the dice and install a Luk clutch, although I can't comment on the quality if you do any towing.
 
Make sure your hydraulic line has been bled properly... those lines have a dip in them that makes it hard to bleed by pumping the pedal. a pressure bleeder is needed
 
Originally Posted By: mk378
Having to pump up but not losing fluid means that the master has an internal problem.


While I would normally agree I had a 2005 ranger that did the same thing and it was the slave cylinder. Which is a well known issue they go out around 100k miles or so.

now that this is all muddied up with aftermarket parts.. who knows.
 
Originally Posted By: Bluestream
Make sure your hydraulic line has been bled properly... those lines have a dip in them that makes it hard to bleed by pumping the pedal. a pressure bleeder is needed


Well it had been working fine for about 1.5 years so I am thinking must be a leak. Unless some air was in it and managed to eventually move to a different location where it affects things and by pumping I am getting the air to move out but not all the way out, so it comes back. I suppose that is possible and would be better than a leak. But I am not going to try bleeding it on my own. I'll have to take it in. Problem is most shops don't know how to do it. Last time I had the master replaced it took the shop over a week to get it bled. They weren't working on it constantly but off and on when they had spare time because I was not charged a lot of labor. But I had no truck for a week. I don't need that either. It has to be in and out in one day. Maybe the dealership is the way to go.
 
Originally Posted By: TallPaul
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Go with the genuine Ford parts. They are not Motorcraft, but blue label Ford Genuine.


Please educate me. I have never heard of the "blue label" Ford Genuine. Would this be from the dealership, Or do they sometimes pawn off Motorcraft parts on unwary people?

As a side note on parts quality, about 12 years ago I had an Aerostar and the fuel pump went out. Shop put in two Carter fuel pumps (supposedly a quality brand). Both were bad. Then they got a Motorcraft pump which worked for years with no problems.


Not every Ford part is Motorcraft. Parts sold under the Motorcraft name are available in places other than the dealer. Parts with blue stripes on the label are captive at dealers and not made available to other store officially. The difference in packaging is obvious. Motorcraft parts have the red and black labels where the Ford genuine have blue labels. There are cases where there are both a Ford and a Motorcraft part, such as with brake components. The value line will have a V in the base (middle section) of the part number where that will not be present on the Ford part. An example is Ford brake pads will have a 2001 or 2200 base number where Motorcraft value have 2V001 and 2V200. Similar idea to the ACDelco OE vs Professional parts lines.
 
I work for a company at manufactures/distributes brake and clutch hydraulics to the aftermarket.

The OE manufacturer on your hydraulics is FTE. Ford has had several different versions of this part over the years, and they all mostly suck.

I spent some time on the phone with an engineer at FTE about 10 years ago discussing this particular system...there is no good way to do it. You can't have a dust boot that seals properly because it will end up wadding up, so you have vent the dust boot, which obviously allows dust in. Effectively, you have exposed hydraulic sealing surface in a hot container of flying abrasive dust. That won't end well...and mostly doesn't. We supply the FTE parts for this application and many others, and the failure rate is higher than normal. FTE / Ford is the most reliable one of these you'll find.

If you don't see any leaks, you have a bleeding problem...which is much more common since the master cylinder points down at an angle....air cannot escape from under the piston seal. If replacing individual components, one has to either jack the front of the truck up until the master cylinder bore is level before bleeding, or bleed the whole assembly on the bench with the master cylinder level, then undo the dry break connector, assemble everything in the truck, and reconnect. The other option is to replace with a pre-bled slave cylinder (all the OE /FTE ones come pre-bled) and a pre-bled master cylinder/line assembly.
 
I bought a 94 Ranger with a worn out clutch. Going in I figured I'd replace the disk and motor on. I have changed many VW bug clutches. Easy afternoon job. If my BMW were a manual shift, I could replace all the clutch hydraulics without dropping the trans. The Ranger wasn't designed to be taken apart. Plus it had been run on the beach and rusted just about solid in places. I replaced everything inside the bell housing. I also knew about the bleeding deal. The way I did it was to connect all the parts together with the MC loose from the firewall. This procedure was explained in 3 languages on the instruction sheet for the MC, the hose and the slave BTW. That way it can be gravity bled. The push to connect allows you to bleed all the way to slave coupling before attaching the hose to the slave. then you top off the reservoir and open the bleeder on the slave. Once you have a steady drip, tighten the bleeder, you're done. Almost. Now bolt the MC to the firewall. All the parts I used came from Auto Zone or Parts Geek. I used a LUK rep set but MC and hose were from AZ. The clutch action is as smooth as butter and I can idle around in first by feathering the clutch. Its been 5 yrs and maybe 5k miles
 
Maybe I should get an AC Delco master cylinder. My son has an S10, same year as my Ranger, about the same miles and it is on the original master and slave and still working great. Of course that was 2001 parts and now it is 2017.

Sounds like it is best to get the pre bled with reservoir and line to tranny attached. Do you have any issues with air getting in when it is connected at the slave? How difficult is it to install the master? Kind of hard to work way up under the dash.
 
Well, thanks for all the advice. I will keep it in mind and try to get blue label Ford parts for this, but at this time I am still running it and not having issues. But I am pumping the pedal everyday when I am on the steep up and down ramps of the parking structure, figuring that may push the remaining bubbles to the reservoir. I am now thinking that it never got perfectly bled and that these bubbles worked their way into the business part of the master cylinder somehow. I could check for leaks but with my busy schedule and the snow and cold I don't have great desire to crawl under the truck, but could at least check in the cab at the back of the master.
 
My mechanic ordered the parts last Monday and now has the Genuine Ford blue strip parts (master, slave and release bearing) at his shop.

The truck goes in Monday.

I also gave him three qts of Amsoil Manual Syncromesh Transmission Fluid to refill the tranny. The Redline MTL has been in there for about 50,000 miles. Good time to change it out.
 
Got a lot of pedal now, actually a bit high up, but nice engagement range. There is little to no free play though, and maybe that is partly because the clutch disk has 40,000 miles on it, but it does engage solidly with no slippage. Someone told me they had a similar experience of a high pedal after changing their clutch and that after 15,000 miles some free play developed.
 
Well after about 200 miles of driving it seems to have settled in and now has about 1/2-3/4 inches free play at the top and begins to engage about 1 to 1.5 inches off the floor. The engagement part of the pedal is fairly wide for a nice smooth release. Working great.
 
Originally Posted By: lbhsbz
I work for a company at manufactures/distributes brake and clutch hydraulics to the aftermarket.

The OE manufacturer on your hydraulics is FTE. Ford has had several different versions of this part over the years, and they all mostly suck.

I spent some time on the phone with an engineer at FTE about 10 years ago discussing this particular system...there is no good way to do it. You can't have a dust boot that seals properly because it will end up wadding up, so you have vent the dust boot, which obviously allows dust in. Effectively, you have exposed hydraulic sealing surface in a hot container of flying abrasive dust. That won't end well...and mostly doesn't. We supply the FTE parts for this application and many others, and the failure rate is higher than normal. FTE / Ford is the most reliable one of these you'll find.

If you don't see any leaks, you have a bleeding problem...which is much more common since the master cylinder points down at an angle....air cannot escape from under the piston seal. If replacing individual components, one has to either jack the front of the truck up until the master cylinder bore is level before bleeding, or bleed the whole assembly on the bench with the master cylinder level, then undo the dry break connector, assemble everything in the truck, and reconnect. The other option is to replace with a pre-bled slave cylinder (all the OE /FTE ones come pre-bled) and a pre-bled master cylinder/line assembly.



I guess you know what you are talking about. The new Genuine Ford master and slave worked great at first, but now I am back to where I was before we changed it out. I have practically no pedal and have to pump it 20-40 times to get into first gear. I am ready to get an older truck with mechanical clutch linkage, so I need to scope out when the hydraulic linkages came in. I am taking the Ranger back next week and am sure they can get it back to where it was, but will it just lose pedal again? If so, I an dome with hydraulic clutches until they can make quality parts and in my book that means metal not plastic and made in USA not China!
 
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