Hello all, I've got an issue that I'm hoping might be something simple. I haven't had a chance to take a look yet, but here's what happened...

Got the car in trade, ran great, clutch worked great, everything worked great. Took it out and put some speed to it (100mph), and on my way back I noticed a bit of a dragging sound. Clutch still engaged and disegaged fine.

The week after that, I was driving home at regular city speeds and all of a sudden went to shift into third and it wouldn't go into gear. Sat at the side of the road fiddling with it in the car and got it to go into reverse and backed into a parking lot. Shut it down for a few minutes, started it back up, and it worked fine.

Got about halfway home on that same trip and it did the same thing, would not go into gear. It would go into third and reverse and that was it. So I limped it home and it's been sitting since. I'm thinking clutch pressure plate bolts some how backed out a bit, or throw out bearing got a little hot and maybe warped or something. The problem didn't start until I had it up at the higher speeds. It wasn't for a very long period of time either, maybe 1-2 minutes.

Anybody had something similar to this happen? And if so, what'd it end up being? The clutch still grabs fine when it does go into gear, it's just not going into every gear. Any help would be appreciated as I'm unemployed and can't afford to get it fixed by a shop. I'm mechanically able, but would rather have a base idea to go off of before I go tearing into it. Thanks!

 

First, going 100 mph on public roads........enough said IMO.

Check the cables, drain the fluid.....

 

Did you not read past the 100mph part? And why do you assume that it was on a public road automatically? I made no mention of being anywhere on a public road. Up here we have quite a few tracks and I frequent them.

Draining the fluid and checking the cables won't do anything for a loose pressure plate or warped throw out bearing which I think to be the culprit. I was just wondering if somebody might've had a similar experience and knew off hand what it was before I go tearing into it.

 

You obviously know more about Honda's and cars than I do, sorry for trying to help.

Good luck.

 

I am not sure what the source of the problem is. It could be the clutch, transmission, or possible the shifter cables.

When you push in the clutch, is the flywheel still engaged with the friction disc? For example, if you stay in gear with the clutch pedal pushed down does the car still want to move when you hit the gas?

Does the gear grind when you try to put it into another gear?

Have you changed out the transmission fluid? Any pieces of metal in there?

 

There's no grinding, it just won't go into gear at all. It's like it's hitting a wall when you try to move the shifter into gear. At idle, you can hear a dragging noise coming from the clutch itself. That's why I'm thinking backed off pressure plate bolts or warped throwout bearing or something along those lines.

 

I agree.

If the clutch disengages the transmission from the engine, then I don't see how the pressure plate, clutch disc, the throwout bearing, or the flywheel can cause you problems changing the gear.

I would first check where the shift cables attach to the transmission. Change the transmission fluid. Check the owner's manual, because I think you can use 10W-30 motor oil. This could be a cheap fix. You can also inspect the old oil for debris.

 

The transmission going out wouldn't happen as fast as this did. Plus the trans going out, maybe one or two gears wouldn't work and they would almost always grind trying to put them into gear.

The dragging noise is the clutch itself. I push the pedal in, the noise goes away. I let the clutch out, the dragging noise comes back whether it's in gear or not. No the car does no move with it in gear and the clutch pushed in. The shifter cables are fine. The fluid is fine.

 

Well, this thing really has me thrown for a loop.

Got it running today (It's been sitting for about a month) and it would go into 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and reverse. Then it would do all gears. Then it would do 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th...etc. I would pump the clutch a few times and it would work flawlessly. So I'm pretty sure the slave cylinder either has air in the line or is just old and worn out and needs replacing.

That's a simple fix for the going into gear problem for the most part. The other thing that happened today...While I was pumping the pedal two different times, it felt like it caught a gear and the engine stalled out. But it wasn't in gear at all, shifter was in neutral (I rechecked the linkage and everything is good). Started it back up and it wanted to die if I didn't hold the gas down a little bit.

So I took it up slowly to about 3k rpms and it sounded like a stuck bolt flew and hit the inside of the transmission/clutch area. Then it ran fine with just a little dragging noise. A few minutes later (Was letting it idle to charge the battery up as I jumped it with my truck), it did the same thing. Felt like it caught a gear and died. Started it up and this time the bolt hitting metal noise came right when it started.

So I'm thinking now that a bolt or maybe a friction disc spring or something is rolling around inside the case and causing trouble. There's a good trans shop a few miles down the road that has done work for me in the past. They do free diagnostic's, so now that it's running again, I'm going to try and get a temp license (When funds allow) and drive it down to have them look at it and see what exactly is causing all the trouble in there.

My apologies to everybody, especially poorman, for being pretty snippy initially. Being unemployed and trying to make ends meet and having stuff like this going on has been a very trying endeavor. I appreciate all the input so far.