Two problems related to clutch have been reported for the 1998 Ford Ranger. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Clutch would not fully disengage while driving, and transmission would slip. Dealer representative stated clutch assembly failed, due to way I drive, which is a wear item and not covered by warranty, and $623. 00 to repair. Truck has only 32,000 miles on it. Previous two trucks I owned had manual transmissions and over 140,000 miles on them when I sold them and both had original clutches. I have not changed way I drive, and I drive in same area. Brought to aamco for second opinion and was told pressure plate and clutch failure. Was told by aamco it was probably design defect due to only 32,000 miles and pressure plate failure. Also, aamco rep. Stated new Ford Ranger and f-150 manual transmission uses automatic transmission fluid, and has 3 rubber plugs in transmission housing. Auto trans. Fluid eats away rubber plugs, which allows dirt in and fluid out, another design defect.
Load sqeal heard when starting out from a stop and I think I can hear it in second and third gear, but not certain as the engine noise covers the sound. In searching the internet I did find another customer complain similar to mine. Also I found a service bulliten #2521 that states that the parts catalog book references an incorrect clutch part number for some vehicles with the 3. 0l engines. Is it possible that my truck had the wrong part in it originally or they put the wrong part in ( througout bearing replaced July 1999) when they fixed it. This is the second time that I am having this problem and I will be contacting another dealer with this problem, as I was not completely satisfied with the service that I got from the dealer that I bought the truck from. Please advise. Thanks, jay grover.