I want to start by saying that I know very little about cars, so I am hoping someone might know what my problem is. I have a 1990 ford ranger that I started having problems with about 2 months ago. I had been driving it on the interstate, about 75 mph, for about 30 minutes. When I came to my exit ramp, I went to press in the clutch and the pedal had no resistance. Usually it feels like it is pushing back, but this time it went straight to the floor. I couldn't shift, nothing. I pulled to the side of the road, pushed it up into nuetral and had it towed to my mechanic. The mechanic got it and said nothing was wrong with it. He was right, I went to pick it up and the clutch worked fine. I thought nothing of it, and about a month later headed down the same interstate, going to the same place, and when I went to pull off the interstate, pressed the clutch and no resistance again. This time I found that even though it had no resistance, I could still shift pressing it all the way in. Normally, when I let out on the clutch, it has to get to about the half way point before it "kicks" in to gear and starts going, but this time, with the clutch to the floor, just barely letting out on the clutch it would "kick" into the next gear. (Sorry, I'm not very technical when it comes to this stuff) I also noticed smoke or steam coming from around the gearshift (in the cab). Once I got off the interstate, the problem slowly got better and after getting to my destination, I let it sit for about 4 hours, and it was back to it's normal self. I drove it home on the interstate, this time I only went about 55 - 60 mph, and didn't have any trouble. It seems like it only does it when I am driving above 65-70 mph for a long distance.
Now, I'm not sure if this is related, but I am want to inform you of all the symptoms. I talked to my father-in-law about the above situation (talk about blind leading the blind) and he said, "you really don't even need the clutch to shift". Several other people have told me the same thing, so out of curiosity I thought I would try this, just in case I was ever in this situation again. So one evening I tried it, and was amazed at how easy it was, didn't really have any problem, except for downshifting, don't have a clue how to do that. The next day I tried again, I had driven 3-4 miles shifting quite often, when I tried to shift to 4th gear, I grinded it. I thought maybe I just didn't have the engine at the right speed and tried it again later, and 4th gear grinded again. It wasn't that bad, I wasn't really even forcing it. I've done much worse before accidently when using the clutch. So I decided I would give up on the clutchless shifting. Then I started noticing that now, even when using the clutch, I have trouble getting it to shift into 4th. It doesn't grind, it just doesn't seem to want to go down into it, like something is blocking it. I usually have to try 3 or 4 times before it finally will go down into that gear. So now I am afraid I screwed something up while trying to learn to clutchless shift.
Does anyone have any idea what this may be? They may not be related at all, I just want to give you all the information you might need. It has been a very dependable truck up until this point, and I am hoping it won't be something really major, but thought maybe someone might have some idea of what it is. If it is something major, I will probably be looking into a new vehicle, as it is not worth fixing, so any help would be appreciated.
I really appreciate your time and help, Matt