Well...in the 86 pickup ive been having some weird problems. First off, theres an oil leak somewhere...I thought it was gear oil from the tranny/TC. The past few weeks the truck has been hard to shift into some gears. Almost like i'll push the clutch in, and i cant put the shifter into third. I thought maybe im running low on gera oil in the tranny? SO I just opened the fill plug for the tranny, and clean looking gear oil slowly started to drip out. Same for the transfercase! SO does that mean they are full enough? Also, the oil on the underside of the truck is more of a black oil. I just checked my engine oil and its black. Needs to be changed. Whats the deal here fellas?

 

that's kinda weird.......let the investigation begin. i have no idea, just bumping for you!

 

That means they are full.

Sounds like you are having a master/slave/bracket problem.

 

It looks like the oil is leaking more from aroundl the oil pan area? The rear bottom of the pan is slightly wet, and from there back is covered with oil. I guess driving caused the oil to make its way back to the rest of the belly. IM gonna do an oil change now, check ALL fluids and fully clean the belly of the beast lol. Than keep a close eye on it

 

Sounds like a rear main or oil pan to me, but check your valve cover gaskets as well. Those half moons tend to leak.

 

Check the clutch slave cyl. It would give you exactly the same thing as you describe what is happening. Oh and you may want to fix it sooner than later as when it does finally go you will have to shift it without the clutch and at stoplights shut the truck off and put it in gear to start and go. Happened to me on my 82. The clutch slave is not expensive and is very easy to change out. Get someone to give the clutch a push inside the truck while you look underneath. This is more than likely the problem.

 

is that on the tranny or motor? Sorry..I dont know my way aroundl drivelines yet.

 

That would be on the tranny. Well if I remember correctly it will be on the bellhousing and its just a cyl that pushes on the clutch release arm going into the bellhousing. That would give you a leak in that area and it would cause the truck to be harder to get into gear when shifting because when you push the clutch in it is leaking down so the clutch will not stay disengaged as long. The thing is about 3-4 inches long and held on by 2 bolts and there is a line running to it from the clutch main cyl. The bolts if I'm not mistaken are 12mm and the nut for the line running from the main cyl is 10mm. But that would be the thing to check.

 

not having any particular experience with your year, what others have mentioned are the likely causes. i just wanted to add that a leaky slave should be pretty obvious, as you will lose the fluid. its usually a small reservoir either shared with your brakes, or a small cup to itself. so it wouldnt be too long before you had none. just 1.5cents there. good luck on getting her fixed.

 

If you do end up changing it you will need to bleed it like you bleed brakes. One person in the truck and one underneath to crack the bleed. Its really an easy fix. And like AntiVenom said you can look at the main cyl and see if the fluid is down.