fire_craft

I was recently given a 1988 C1500 with a 5.7 and a 5 speed manual transmission because a friends son was scared of it. According to them it had set up for awhile. Due to this I have been taking steps to make sure it will run reliably. Such as full tune up, coolant flush, and oil change. I've had to change the fuel filter three times now due to rust in the tank. I carry spare fuel filters with me. And plan to change them when the truck starts to stutter on take off, or every other tank of fuel (which ever comes first) until they come out fairly clean. I have already repaired several holes in the exhaust pipe. But still need to adjust the emergency brakes. Besides the emergency brake and fuel filter issues, the truck has ran and shifted good up to this point.
The other day smoke began coming from the transmission area when I parked at the house. So of course I immediately searched for any leaks or sources of the smoke. The only thing I found was that the slave cylinder had began to leak. There were no other obvious sources of smoke or leaks found.
So I got a ride to the parts store and purchased a new one and extra DOT 3 brake fluid. Pulled the truck up onto my ramps so I could access the slave cylinder, and put the truck into 1st gear (due to the emergency brake not being reliable). Removing the leaking slave cylinder went easy enough. I flushed the hydraulic clutch system until I got clean fluid coming out of the line that connects to the slave cylinder, and installed the new cylinder. Followed by bleeding the clutch system. I shifted through all the gears with the engine shut off just to make sure everything felt right, and backed off the ramps.
The clutch pedal felt a little soft so I pulled back up on the ramps to try bleeding the system a little more. After I shut off the truck I ran through the gears just to double check how it felt. And found that it would not go into reverse. It feels like there is a reverse lockout that is not disengaging. It will shift into 1st - 5th, but will not even attempt to go into reverse. Regardless if the clutch is pressed or not.
I don't think I messed anything up by leaving it in first when changing the slave cylinder. But at this point I'm not sure anymore. I have referred to a Chilton manual and searched online for hours to see what happened, and how to fix it. From everything I have found, everything should work properly. The steps to change the slave cylinder are exactly what I did, minus the leaving it in 1st part.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. This truck is meant to be my main transportation, and once I get it going again I can get back to hunting for a job.

Little Bear

I'd get in and pull it forward a bit and then see if it will go into reverse. NV-3500s in my experience always seem to end up with problems with 5th gear and reverse, I'm currently having that issue in my 92, waiting for some free time to pull and rebuild the trans.

fire_craft

Thank you for responding so quickly. I guess this means I get to go out and push it off the ramps to give that a try. Oh, the joys of older trucks, lol.
I'll still take my old ones over most of these new ones though.
I just got back in from reinstalling the slave cylinder with the trans in neutral to see if that would help. Even bled the hydraulic system again. Only thing that did was aggravate me a little more. But at least now I got to see a couple of other things to take care of before they bite me in the rear. Just simple things you'd expect from a truck this old. Gaskets, sensors, and such. But they can wait till I can get it running again first.