Mister Quickie

Day 1 installed ssk, 5 mile drive no issues
Day 2 alignment, towards the end of a 3 mile drive, going up into the driveway felt like something was blocking the front fender but there was nothing there. Happened a couple times later that day. Feels like the wheels are spinning but something's blocking forward motion.

Almost always on an uphill/incline, almost always in first gear, once in second. Sometimes the car will be in motion driving but won't "feel" right, will have a bit of that blocking feeling but still moving forward.

Figuring I may not have it solidly in gear I took a short drive home and made sure every shift was definitely in gear, no issues.

Any ideas what this could be?

Van

What wheels are you using? Could something be rubbing a caliper or the strut housing or something?

HICKS

Is the e-brake on?

Dean924s

Clutch problem?

Mister Quickie

Wheels are aftermarket, never had any problems, after the alignment they are centered within the wheel well.
E-brake is/was not on.
How would I identify if it was a clutch problem?

konakat

You could have a broken e-brake spring.

drh

Parks somewhere safe. Start the engine, apply the brakes hard while applying a bit of throttle (2000rpm) and release the clutch. If the clutch is bad it will slip. If it is good, the engine will buck, then stop.

Van

Or take each front wheel off and look closely for rubbing.

Do you hear any noise while this is happening?

Mister Quickie

Come to think of it, the emergency brake won't pull up at all. Where is the (broken) spring located?



Silly question but wouldn't that require three feet, one per pedal?

Lemming

Look up heel/toe

drh

Heel/Toe brother

Van

This is a 996 parking brake, but it's about the same on a 944. The spring that usually breaks pulls the shoes inward away from the drum.

Mister Quickie

Ahh I see, thx

Mister Quickie

one other thing i forgot to mention is that when the problem occurs, if I put it in reverse and drive back a little bit, it gets "stuck" in the same area. If I reverse and back it out several meters and then go forward, I can smoothly continue straight ahead

Mister Quickie

I took off the brake caliper and rotor. I don't see any broken springs.
Now that I understand how the parking brake works (the "pads" open outwards against the wheel to stop it from moving) I'm realizing that it couldn't be the parking brake. Why, because it was driving fine, then put it in first gear, then the "lockup". It would make (parking brake) sense if I had used the parking brake, then upon taking it off, the pads got stuck in the outwards position but since I never used it, they couldn't have been stuck outwards.
Not sure why the parking brake didn't pull up that one time but now it pulls up and down just fine. Maybe there's more to that that should be investigated but I can't reproduce the scenario.
I guess since I already have the thing apart I'll spray a bunch of brake cleaner in there just for good housekeeping but the mystery continues.
I'll do the clutch measurement for slippage as recommended but since it was last done I've not even put 1,000 miles on it and those are all DD miles.
One thing I was told is that if the brake fluid and/or the clutch fluid is low weird things can happen. I checked the brake fluid and it's at the max, how do I check the clutch fluid level?