'94 F150 Tranny

I own a 94 f150 that has 200k+ mi on it is having tranny problems. At first the clutch petal would not come back to position so I took it to the ford dealer and they told me I was looking at large dollars to replace slave cylinder, but I just changed the blatter or what ever you call it in the hydraulic clutch resevoir and it seemed to work pretty good. Then I couldn't get it to go into first gear. It seemed to go past it, the shifter almost hitting the dash. There has been a lot of play in the shifter for some time now, but it was only third gear + third would come out of gear when decellerating. Can you tell me what may be going on. I work at a high school and am on a very restrictive budget so I am not wanting to face those outrageous ford garage prices, but I am afraid that is what I am looking at, is this some thing that I could take care of given my limited mechanical skills?

I had the sam prob. w/ the shifter hitting the dash on a 96. It was a pretty simple fix with replacing the conection between the trany and stick Im not quite sure what was done I was in a hurry so I was not able to do it my self. but at the dealer it cost on ly $150 so it was no too complicated, look in to it gettin gin there is no big deal. dont need to drop th trany or any thing. mith also cause the poppin out in 3rd too. just a thought James

You have a M5OD trans. Something to do while you have the top plate off, replace the plugs at the end with steel ones. They are known to leak down the road or pop out and then ruin your trans. M5OD's are known for that. Might want to try the scrapeyard, the same trans is in the rangers.