Hello everyone, so I’m new to this as in literally my first day so please forgive me if I get something wrong. I recently purchased a 97 f150 with the 4.6 and 5 speed manual and I’m having a problem with it. The clutch activation and engagement felt completely fine when I started, but then I drove about 55 miles and when getting off an off ramp from the highway, the pedal went completely stiff and wouldn’t engage with 1st gear anymore. I mean REALLY stiff as in I almost couldn’t push it to the floor, I tried a few times and it reluctantly caught (really slow and high) and I was able to drive it to a parking lot and have it towed. (I was also able to shift from 1st to second). So I’m sitting in the parking lot waiting for the tow truck fiddling with the clutch peddle (pushing down and letting off) and eventually it just got weaker and went back to normal, almost like something popped right again. I tried moving the truck again and it engaged alright (seemingly at least), but I have no idea what this could be, can anyone help diagnose it?

So I was able to push the clutch pedal in and move the gear lever into first, however upon releasing the clutch it wasn’t catching to move the truck. It gently hooked like the bite point was at the very very top, but it grabbed as if I was on a slight decline-slowly getting faster until I was able to just let the rest of the throw out (about maybe an inch?) for it to engage first fully. So to recap the ride home was mostly fine, but just then the pedal got extremely hard to press in and when trying to grab where the bite point was, it almost didn’t.

I was gonna try and do it myself but, I have a feeling it might be a little out of my league. I just got the truck a few days ago, and I don’t think any work has been done to it. It has 85,000 miles on it so I was puzzled as to how a clutch would go out of nowhere that early. By bite point, I mean the point in the clutch throw where it engages the transmission back to the engine. Essentially the point you bring the clutch to when you apply the throttle. I applied the throttle and got the revs up to like 1800rpms and it just gently rolled forward like it was struggling to connect the transmission and engine. Think of being on a small small hill with the truck off and putting the clutch in so it rolls a bit, it was like that.

Yeah it went back to normal after sitting in a parking lot for about 20-25 minutes. Like I said I was able to move it forward again and the clutch grabbed just like it normally would, like it did when I picked it up. Still though, just having it be linkage is puzzling to me. The force required to push the peddle in was beyond tough, like trying to push a 50 pound weight. Thank you for your time btw. ALSO if it helps, when I push in the clutch peddle, I can hear a small squeak come from the engine bay.