Grinding gears. Clutch failing? Master cylinder? Slave cylinder?

Tugboat123

New Member
Apr 28, 2019
4
0
1
Lansing MI
So, I started noticing some grinding of gears (all gears. Shifting up) when I shift. If I shift slowly, there is no grind. It just takes a brief pause after I shift out of a gear before I shift into the next gear, and then there is no grind. So, I came to my own conclusion that the clutch master cylinder was bad. Put a new one in. I borrowed a vacuum pump from Auto Zone and bled the system. After that, for the first 15 minutes of driving there was no grind. After 15 minutes, it went right back to the exact same issue. I bled it multiple times and the same thing continued to occur. 15 minutes of good driving, then back to grind grind grind. I tried talking to a guy at a transmission shop (I was up there getting a trans part for my lakester that I race at the Bonneville Salt Flats). I asked if he’d take my car for a drive and give me his professional opinion. He kinda blew me off and said “it’s the clutch”, simply based on the symptoms I reported. Now, the clutch is original and has 164,000 miles on it. Yes. 164,000. But the clutch isn’t slipping at all. This car has been VERY well maintained since it was brand new and it has been driven very lightly. Never abused. I’ve never even spun the tires. I don’t want to shell out $1,000 to get a clutch replaced before I’m sure it’s the clutch. Is it possible that the slave cylinder is bad and causing this issue? Did I screw up the bleeding process after installing the new clutch master cylinder? Sorry for the long-winded post. Your help would be enormously appreciated. Thanks!
 
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Have you checked the fluid level of the transmission? My 06 GT has 274,000 miles, original clutch. It grinds when the trans fluid gets low. Slow leak at the tailshaft for me.
This transmission is sealed. It requires some special procedure to check the level of the trans fluid. According to a google search, I might have to attain assistance from a Ford dealer, as they may be the only place in town with the special tool to check it. But thanks for the input. I’m gonna look into it. By the way, the bag of rice didn’t work. Lol!
 
This transmission is sealed. It requires some special procedure to check the level of the trans fluid. According to a google search, I might have to attain assistance from a Ford dealer, as they may be the only place in town with the special tool to check it. But thanks for the input. I’m gonna look into it. By the way, the bag of rice didn’t work. Lol!
The manual transmission is not sealed. I have done a couple drain and fills.
 
LOL, 274k miles on the original clutch?
Do you only shift gears once/day? ;)
LOL... I don't shift hard often anymore. But I still shift a lot. Even downshift to slow down. I beat on it the first 100,000 though. Still do sometimes. I also have a Fox Body with the T5, I figured out how to make that T5 last too (not nearly as long as this though).
 
I had a grind in my T5 and was told to try chevy synchromesh fluid. Hate to put chevy fluid in my Ford but it fixed it. The story I was told was that chevy had trouble with the t5 and came up with this fluid. It'll work better than a bag of rice for sure. Is there a t45 in your car? If it's like the t5 there are two plugs on the side of the transmission one above the other. Take a 3/8 ratchet and put the square drive (no socket required) in the top plug. Remove it and stick your little finger in and see if it has fluid on it when you take it out. No fluid equals low. To drain open the lower plug.