Joe944

Alright, well the clutch seemed fine until now... so here's what happened. I'm driving to a stop light, stop.. light turns green.. put clutch in, put it in first, give it a little gas... I go like 10 feet and I hear a slight popping sound and now it won't go into gear -at all-... I just get free revs.

When the car is idling I now hear a weird rattling like sound from the back of the car (transmission??) And the clutch goes in a little easier but still comes up... (the clutch being easier MIGHT be my imagination or something but it seems easier.. just got it pushed home and it's dark so I can't do anything really about it tonight but does anyone have any ideas?

Joe944

bump

jim968

"Won't go into gear at all".... meaning you can't select a gear with the shifter, or that the car won't move when you select a gear & let the clutch out?

If it's the former, I'll let someone else attempt a diagonosis. Not wanting to stir false hopes, but if it's the latter, your "slight popping sound" makes me suspect a failure of something related to half-shafts & CV's... maybe the infamous CV flange bolts?

Jim, Awright, who left the dam' door open up North? It's gettin' chilly down here!

Jon Hanson

In reference to Jim's former. Check the tranny linkage on the top of the transaxle. There's one part in it that came loose on mine, and I got the same symptoms, I could turn the shift lever at all angles, and coudln't feel a thing. Good luck.

Joe944

Yeah, the shifter just moves around to all the spots but the car won't move. It makes a louder sound when I put the car into gear, but I don't even need to put the clutch in to shift it.. tomorrow I'm gonna have to tear it apart and figure out what's wrong.

FSTPRSH

Not sure if this will help, but my linkage bolt backed out and my car was stranded at school (better than a stoplight) for a night. <img src="graemlins/crying.gif" border="0" alt="[crying]" /> It was that little bolt with a tip on the end that bolts the linkage to the shaft. I got a clanking sound from the linkage banging the side of the tranny when I tried putting it in gear.

--Brad

Andrew

Your clutch is toast. you don't even have the limp-home option left. Good way to chech this is to jack up the rear and pull off the big black cover on the tranny then, while the engine is running, have someone put it in gear and let the clutch out. if the torque tube is not turning then it is definatly the clutch. Good luck

Martin

First off, there is no limp home mode, the steel tabs are there to limit the twist on the rubber, not to drive on anytime, an unsprung clutch will kill your transmission.
With the engine off see if you can turn the input shaft to the transmission (in neutral) if you can your clutch has sheared, if you cant check that the clutch disengages and the shaft turns when the pedal is pressed

Micah

I too had the linkage come apart (twice actually after the first shop I took it to simply put the old parts "back together.") I had free revs, but for some reason could utilize second gear after some fiddling, so I managed to coax the car a few miles to the nearest import place.
It was a cheap problem to fix for me; hope that you don't run into anything more severe.

Micah

Andrew

Martin,

I beg to differ. I drove 7000 miles on a clutch where the rubber had sheared loose. It can be done.

How in the whole design of the transmission would you 'Kill' the tranny? That will not happen because of the design. I have been working on these trannies for ever. The car that Limped for 7k miles finally let go and the tranny is still good.

If you put the tranny in neutral and try to turn it by hand you may not have the power to turn passed the worn tabs. This is that rattle/clunking sound when the engine is running in gear.

Andrew

Joe, i could come up and look at it for you.

Joe944

Alright well I'm finally going to check it out today since my dad is being a dick about it and won't look at it (the rain has sucked too haha)

I'm leaning towards the linkage, however I'm a rather optimistic person lol...

What exactly do I need to remove to get to where I can figure out what exactly is wrong?

adrial

You need to remove the back left wheel and have a looksee.

On the top of the trans you'll see the linkage..have someone run the shifter through the gears and make sure that everything is moving as its supposed to.

good luck!

951and944S

Joe, This also goes for auto's, if you can select any gear, let off clutch pedal (manual), and speedo registers a speed reading in accordance with throttle position, then your clutch/trans is OK, the power is simply not getting to the wheels, and a faulty CV axle is the culprit.
This of coarse can only be the case on the later cars, where speedo is not read from a front wheel.
If you can't select any gear, then rubber or a spring could be lodged between the pressure plate and the flywheel, not allowing the transmission to stop rotation when the pedal is depressed.

Joe944

[quote] Joe, This also goes for auto's, if you can select any gear, let off clutch pedal (manual), and speedo registers a speed reading in accordance with throttle position, then your clutch/trans is OK, the power is simply not getting to the wheels, and a faulty CV axle is the culprit.
This of coarse can only be the case on the later cars, where speedo is not read from a front wheel.
If you can't select any gear, then rubber or a spring could be lodged between the pressure plate and the flywheel, not allowing the transmission to stop rotation when the pedal is depressed. <hr></blockquote>

I think it might be the CV's then because I can put it into gear (if I put the clutch in it goes in smoothly, and if I don't put the clutch in it still goes in easyily with a little vibration sometimes which lead me to think it was the linkage) and when I let the clutch out and rev it a little the speedo will go up as I continue to rev the car, I just don't go anywhere...

Yes I know I haven't had a chance to look at it and my baby has been sitting there for a week and a half <img src="graemlins/cussing.gif" border="0" alt="[grrrrrrr]" /> but tomorrow I'll have my dad (mechanic) look at it.

How hard exactly are CV's to fix/replace and what costs am I looking at if I do it myself or labor costs just for info?

thanks for everyones help =)