Drove an hour to pick up my son then another hour back home. I had no problem shifting the whole time. just as I'm getting home (about 2 blocks away) the car starting shifting hard and then I stopped right in front of my drivway to pull in and I couldn't get it in 1st gear. I had to jam it in to get out of the road. I park the sporty and I tried to put into other gears and it wont go into 1st, 2nd, or 3rd and it goes into 4th and 5th but really really hard. I forget whether It went into reverse or not. I turned off the sporty and pressed in the clutch and it goes into all gears smoothly and easily like I was driving. I started the sporty back up and it wouldn't go into the gears again. Can someone please tell me what the frig is going on here.

I have a 98, manual tranny, 141,000 miles and this is the first time that anything like this has happened. Just this past summer I changed the tranny fluid. I dont have a check engine light on or any other lights that would suggest a problem. This is weird. Maybe a wire came loose in the engine compartment or on the tranny.

I was told by someone over the phone that the throw out bearing in the clutch is gone. Can anyone confirm this? If so, I know someone on this board had to change their own clutch. If I could please have all of the little tips and headachs that you ran into that wasn't in the manual. That would be very much appriciated.

For the past couple of hours I have been searching for threads dealing with the clutch. Really not much help. Mostly talks about needing to change them. what I did find is a few more places to look for problems. This I know ....

1. The clutch pedal feels as strong as it always did.
2. It does not go to the floor.

So looking at that I'm thinking that there ISN'T a leak somewhere. I will check the brake fluid, slave cylander rubber boot, clutch pump and the trowout bearing pump anyhow.

There is one other thing here that I just remebered while thinking about my long drive to see if there was anything I missed. I cannot remember if it was on the way there or on the way home but, one time I was shifting into 3rd gear and I heard a little ping. I dont know where it came from but at that point It was hard to get into 3rd gear. This only happend once and after that it was fine shifting until I got home, right outside of my house. I'm thinking that it was during the first part of my trip home. What do you think about this. This stinks because from what I can tell is that most of the people that have delt with trouble shooting or replacing their own clutch, no longer visit this board on a regular basis. I hope someone can point me in the right direction. This is new territory for me.

Brake fluid level is normal. Haven't lost anything there. There is no leak at, on or near the master cylander. I looked under the sporty and there is oil all over the place under there. It has been there for as long as I have had the truck. I can't tell if it's there from changing the oil and filter everytime or maybe it's coming from the oil pan. Not sure really but, I don't think thats the cause of my problem. Not really sure about that either.

What I am sure of is that I'm not going any farther until I hear a few options from some of you guys. I need help and there's noone on during the friggin weekend. This blows!!!!

Chris...before going nuts and ripping everything apart check something real obvious but VERY easy to miss.

Do you still use the factory floor mat or something similar? If yes....go check it right now! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I'll bet the mat has shifted way forward and is preventing the clutch pedal from going to the floor. It has happen to me and it made shifting difficult. And it also sometimes prevented the clutch interlock from making and the engine wouldn't crank.

I've noticed that the more miles on the clutch the closer it engages towards the floor. And the mat jamming up there won't allow it to fully disengage.

Thanks axe,

I have indeed checked that. I no longer have the factory floor mat and the one I have right now is alot thicker and I have to readjust it every couple of days. The truck starts up fine. It's just that when it does start it wont shift at all. It will go into gear if I really jam it in. then when I turn of the truck it shifts perfectly.

Well, it definitely sounds like you lost something in the clutch release assembly. Either the slave cylinder, a bent release fork, or a bad throwout bearing. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

I was affraid you were going to side with that. Well, I guess the only thing left to do is order the clutch and try to figure out how to get the tranny and transfer case out. I will be doing this myself. I will try to take a bunch of pics if people want to see whats going on with it. I just have to find a tranny jack somewhere now.

If anyone has advice either for or against the choice of clutch I will be ordering, speak now. I saw in some past posts that a very good one was the performance clutch from Advanced auto. Not the beck and Arnley but the third option. Any objections?

someone else now told me that it doesn't sound like the clutch. It sounds like a syncronizer in the tranny. Could this be? Is there a way that I can trouble shoot both of these options further?

Either way though, once I have the tranny out I will be replacing the whole clutch reguardless. I just dont want to have to reinstall the tranny and then have to take it back out. Whats the next step?

i was thinking synchro, but only because i have heard of that before, i know nothing, whatsoever, about manual tranies, do not take my suggestion seriously without consulting others.