Reverse, pops out of gear
 

My '95 f250, 5-speed has a hard time with reverse sometimes. Can't find the gear sometimes or it doesn't stay in gear when releasing the clutch???

I am having a similar problem with my 1994. I think it's a clutch adjustment problem but I've not been able to attack it yet. I really don't want it to be a transmission problem.

I'm told the clutch was replaced not long ago (before I bought it). The master appears to be newer. I press in the clutch and it seems like it goes into reverse but as I let out the pedal it grinds. I have to do this a couple of times (pedal down, shift to third, then reverse) and then it finally goes into reverse.

I had a shop look at it, and for whatever reason they never had a problem. (grrrrr).

I later noticed it seems like I sometimes have just a smidgen of difficulty going into second, with my foot on the floor. It also seems I have push the pedal quite a ways before I get action. So I begin to wonder if it might be clutch adjustment.

Then I begin to notice more. When I have my foot on the brake, and then press the clutch pedal down, it "levers" the brake pedal up toward me. It looks like the shaft bushings may be shot. That can't be good because it's not allowing full travel of the pushrod into the clutch master.

So I dive into my 1994 shop manuals....

.... I'm not sure what Ford did, but it appears to me they started hiring monkeys to write the shop manuals. Compared to the manuals and illustrations for my 1971 Mach I Mustang, these are a joke. First problem, the clutch bleeding procedure refers to a step "D" if the desired feel is not obtained. There is no step D (not that I can find anyway), in fact there are no lettered steps at all. To make matters worse (at least from my perspective), it appears there is no bleeder on the slave, it looks like a "hope the bubbles move -up- to master" kind of thing. That can't be right. I like to use a pressure bleeder but it looks like I can't on this model.

Later, I find a procedure for removing the pedal, in hopes of changing the bushings. But the pieces it refers to are not called out in the illustration. :argh:

It looks like I'm back to simply "backyard mechanicing" it.

Any advice from those more in the know?
Asa Jay

FIXED
I finally took mine to a local shop that specialized in manual truck transmissions from the 1990s. From their drive, they knew some things were bad.

In the end this is what it took:
- New Clutch, pressure plate, single-mass flywheel and slave cylinder
- Replaced all syncros
- Replace Reverse/Fifth Slider
- Replaced reverse gear
- Replaced fifth gear
- Replaced all shift forks
- Replaced one shift slider (cylindrical rod)
- Replaced all bearings

The transmission now shifts like butter, no grinding or popping out of reverse. The difference really is night and day. All told it cost me about $3,500 but at this point the transmission should go another quarter million miles and was cheaper than buying another truck.

Asa Jay

My truck had the same problem and I changed the rear end and put a clutch brake and it don't do it no more. Mine is a beauty