i posted this in the newbie section cause i dont know much about fords, but i wasnt getting a response there so i thought i would try here.

a friend of mine has a 94 exploder 2wd with the 4.0 v6. its a 5 speed, and the problem is this: while not running, it will shift throught the gears fine, no problem, but when you start it up, it becomes very hard to get it into gear, any gear. the fluid has been low a couple time, not too low, but enough to have to add some fluid to the resorvoir thingy on the drivers side firewall under the hood.
basically i want to know if its as simple as a fluid problem, or some kind of linkage is wearing out.
i looked under the hood and couldnt find a tranny dipstick (like most autos have) - so i couldnt really tell if it was very low or not. BUT- it did appear to be leaking a drop or two of tranny fluid.
also note: it still pulls fine while driving in gear, so no clutch slip. we just cant figure out why its so hard to get into gear.
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sounds like the clutch might need to be bled. there should be a small resivor on the drivers firewall, is it full? if its leaking air can get into the hydraulic clutch system and make it hard to disengage the clutch

the fluid has been low a couple times, not too low, but enough to have to add some fluid to the resorvoir thingy on the drivers side firewall under the hood.
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but it isnt hard to disengage, its hard to get into gear. and only when the motor is running.

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but it isnt hard to disengage, its hard to get into gear. and only when the motor is running.


sounds like the clutch might need to be bled. there should be a small resivor on the drivers firewall, is it full? if its leaking air can get into the hydraulic clutch system and make it hard to disengage the clutch

X2, bleed the slave, should go into gear easier.

Sounds like the slave might be leaking, there's a inspection plug on the left side of the transmission pull it and look for fluid.

do a search on bleeding this clutch, i dunno if its the same setup as my b2 or if ford changed it but i know they can be a bitch, also the slaves do go bad, look in the bell as said above and if its dry then continue bleeding

Don't bother bleeding it, there's a reason it needs to be bled, because it's leaking!!! Limping a leaking slave is a lost cause, replace it.

Slave is leaking/bysassing internaly. The reason it is hard to get into gear is thet the clutch is not fully disengaging (due to the slave). Replace the slave, bleed the system and the problem will go away.

thanks guys.....

Something to try just to rule it out... (this has come up a few times on the Ranger/Explorer boards).

Try holding light pressure against the stick and see if it easily drops into gear after like 4-5 seconds. If it DOES, then it is not a clutch/slave issue, more likely it's a synchro issue.

From everything I've gathered, this often happens if the transmission is filled with "Mercon V" fluid instead of regular "Mercon", it's too slippery for the synchros (contrary to what Ford says, V isn't 100% backward compatible).
A swap back to plain "Mercon" should clear it up after a couple hundred miles or so.