95 Ford Ranger Clutch

So I have had an issue with my Ranger. When the car is cold it’s fine. After a while…maybe 20-30 minutes of driving, the clutch will start to stick. No better way to describe it. I will take my foot off and it will stick on its way back. It starts subtle but the this will gradually get worse and eventually the clutch will seize up and I can’t press it anymore and the car stalls and I’m stuck. The car cools off and everything will be fine no problem…but the problem keeps resurfacing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all!

I would check the hydraulics for leaks, flush and bleed the system. But my gut says slave cylinder failing after it gets hot.

Stick??? Does that mean when you press the pedal down it remains down when you lift your foot? In that case the engine shouldn’t stall. I’m confused…

it doesn’t stay down. It’s more like when you take off your foot, it doesn’t come up quote as fast as it should. And it gets progressively worse and gets more noticeable. Almost like you step the clutch into gum and it’s holding it from coming up the way it should. Then after a while of that, it just stays up and you cant push it in at all.

Thank you both. The help is appreciated!

Carry a bottle of water in the truck.

The next time the clutch pedal acts up, stop the vehicle, open the hood and pour the bottle of water over the clutch master cylinder to cool it off.

If this temporarily fixes the problem then the master cylinder is the problem.

If it doesn’t, then the slave cylinder is the problem. And if it’s the slave cylinder, the transmission needs to be removed because the slave cylinder is inside the bell housing of the transmission.

Tester

I am familiar with a car that acted about like that . In that case it was the master cylinder .

ok well first, thank you everyone. i’m going to run the water bottle test. i found some pictures online of the master cylinder for the transmission and i think i have it figured out. either way i think it’s going to end up in the shop for the repair eventually. thank you everyone for help with the diagnosis.