1995 XLT Clutch

[cadgear]

Took a gander through the forum, couldn't find anything that really relates to this..

Cold, it works flawlessly. No problems whatsover. When it warms up, ditto. Works wonderfully. But if I leave it idling for a few minutes, say to run into the store for a newspaper or something (less than five minutes), and come back out, shift to first and...the clutch won't engage. Okay, so I go to push it in, maybe give it another go. The pedal feels rock solid, it won't budge in the slightest. Well okay, weird. Put it in neutral, try again, it'll go down but the pedal will put way too much pressure on my foot, as though the pedal is trying to force itself up. After a few tries of this, it'll finally catch, and I can be on my way. Driving down the road a few minutes cures the problem, which makes me think its heat-related.

But my question is, what could possibly make this go on? I understand the -basic- operation of a clutch, but aside from that, the beasts are mystic to me.

Any ideas?

[Austin8214]

Check the slave cylinder. Also make sure your resivior is full of fluid.

[pcbman]

my 95 had a similar symptom that turned out to be a buildup of clutch dust/debris on the transmission input shaft housing. When it got warm it would swell just enough to make the clutch stick like you describe, (its a concentric clutch slave cylinder). I don't know of any way to clean the buildup without taking the tranny out unless you can do it thru the inspection port?

[Bordi]

Me too!! Exactly the same thing on my '95 XLT. I've owned it two days and only glanced underneath it looking for obvious parts falling off. Mine hasn't been driven for a year or so and I was told it is an air bubble in the hydraulic. Will be investigating soon.