1gn clutch problem.... please help.

[SteelBlue]

Okay guys, I've already posted this on 1gn but the traffic on their site is slow so I thought I would ask here as well and double my chances of getting an idea of what is going on.

I have a 95 Sport MTX with approx 189k on it. Timing and water pump supposedly have been replaced but I don't know about the clutch. The girl I bought it from had driven around with a jury rigged clutch cable for approx a year then parked it for two; I've only put maybe 7k on the car since then, haven't had any major problems with it so I made a mental note to change it later. Around February I noticed that reverse sometimes required me to double clutch before it would go into gear but before I could look into the issue my mom wrecked her car and I gave this one to her as a loaner. A month into her borrowing the car she told me about some weird sounds the car would make when she would shift gears; at that point I asked my younger sister who drove around with her and she told me that my mom would frequently pop it out of gear without using the clutch but other than that she was pretty good with the car. My mom’s car got fixed and the Sport got parked for a few months out at their place because I didn’t have room for it.

Fast-forward to 10pm Sunday night. Driving the car back into town shifting was very smooth for the first 10 miles of the drive but when I went to shift from 4th to 5th after a 45 mph zone it was like 5th disappeared. Not wanting to risk putting the car into 2nd instead of 4th I pulled over to the side planning to pull back out once I was going slow enough for 2nd. At this point it acted like all the gears disappeared. The clutch could depress all the way and the shifter would move side to side and an inch forward and back but it wouldn’t ‘notch’ if you know what I mean.

We ended up towing the car home since it was too dark to do anything else with it. Monday evening we found that with the engine off and the clutch in you can run through all the gears but if the car is on all I’ve got is the play in neutral. Also with the car on I can see the flywheel spinning but when the clutch is depressed it doesn’t seem to change at all.

Any suggestions on what to look for? Ideas what it may be? I’m not very mechanically inclined and my husband is an auto body guy, not engine guy so were grasping at straws. I need to get this car up and running again, the 2gn started having major trans issues on the same day so I either have to get my husband to drive me everywhere or walk.

Thank you.

[NickKo]

I am not a trans expert, but you are definitely going to have to drop the trans to find out what is going on ..... I think it is the clutch.

The good news is, that the MTX weighs only 75 lbs.or so and is easy to remove and replace.

Change the throwout bearing and the rear main seal while you are in there too, and you should be good.

Try doing a search on this site and Neons.org on this topic..... I am sure you will find other threads with the same problem, which will give you an idea what is going on internally.

- Nick

[SteelBlue]

Okay thanks. You're the second person to tell me that its probably going to mean clutch replacement. I'll do some searching on neons.org and then look into replacements.

Thanks for answering, Crystal

[asanti]

Hey there Crystal. I don't have any "trans" suggestions as I drive an ATX... BUT on neons.org, or even here get ahold of "Infil". He's pretty handy with 1GN's and I know he's on here from time to time, just tell him I referred you. You might catch him at 1gn.org as well. Good luck.

Later
Allex

[SteelBlue]

Hey thanks for the tip I'll have to do that.