Hello,
My '93 Explorer 5 speed is hard to shift into 1st when I come to a stop. The previous owner had the clutch, pressure plate, t/o bearing and slave cylinder replaced less than 20K miles ago. I felt the clutch was engaging too soon (disengaging too late) so I bled the system but did not see any improvement. What I would like to know is how far off the floor should the clutch engage? Mine engages at about 1 1/2 inches off the floor... This seems too soon to me. Shouldn't it be closer to mid travel before it starts to engage? Also, what is the normal freeplay or dead zone at the top of pedal travel before any resistance is felt? Mine is about an inch. Should this be there with a hydraulic clutch? I think I still might have air in the system explaining the small amount of travel - but this may be normal. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm really not worried so much about where it releases but it seems that it is not fully releasing. If when coming to a stop I shift to neutral, stop and then shift into first it will usually have to be forced into first gear... Sometimes you even here a thud when it is shifted like the input shaft is still turning. However, if I shift into first while still moving (not into neutral) it will usually shift into first much easier... (except my leg doesn't enjoy holding in the clutch pedal). Also if I downshift coming off a highway ramp I will usually here grinding of the gears unless I hold the clutch in for several seconds or almost come to a complete stop before shifting to a lower gear. I really would like to feel confident that everytime I shfted into neutral at a stop that I will be able to always shift into first. Right now sometimes I feel that the next time I stop it won't. Also, when I bled the clutch, I changed the transmisson fluid to Royal Purple SynchroMax...