S2KI Honda S2000 Forums - My 1st and reverse gear have to be forced in

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My 1st and reverse gear have to be forced in

Hey guys, I just recently bought my 04 s2000 a few months ago with 77,000 miles on it. There had been no problems with it up until recently when it got cold around here in Oxford, Mississippi area. When at a cold start it was hard to put my 1st gear in and I blamed it on the cold and the tranny just not being warmed up. Just the other day however it became very difficult to put into 1st gear and reverse was even worse, I have to pull with almost all my weight to get in (yes Im pushing down on it at the same time). When my car is off however it's extremely easy to get it into any gear and I only have this problem when the car is tuned on. Has anyone had the same problem or know what could be wrong?

your clutch is probably not fully disengaging.

Is there a lot of free play in the clutch pedal? Is the clutch engagement point really close to the floor?

You should really stop forcing the car into gear. You're going to break something.

Yup. Classic clutch drag symptoms. You should look up the diys and do the following:

Adjust clutch rod play (look for the excellent youtube video)

Gravity bleed clutch fluid, making sure to swap out all ood fluid with new. Do not let the reservoir go empty during the process or you're making it worse

Check clutch pedal height adjustment. You use a tape measure to see how high it is off the floor, and adjust as needed.

If none of that helps, it could be a problem with the clutch itself. Like maybe PO put in a crap Exedy 'oem' clutch (its not really oem), and its starting to drop a spring, which is jamming things enough to cause drag.

That is what happened to me. I think ot might have been an ebay clutch, similar to exedy, that PO put in. I was able to get some more life out of it by adjusting the clutch pedal height artificially high. Finally the spring fell out completely, and I had to drop trans and replace entire clutch. But it gave me time to save and plan for a new clutch.

I wisely consulted the forum and realized how important it is to go with oem clutch. Now my clutch works great.

Thank so much guys ill try these things later this week and see if it they work.
Its so frustrating cause I saved up forever to buy this car and now this happens soon after buying it :banghead:

Wouldn't my gears grind if the clutch wasn't disengaged all the way?

Not necessarily. Your clutch is lightly dragging. First and reverse are engaged to bring the mainshaft from 1000rpm to a stop. The dragging clutch makes this difficult.

Once on the road, the mainshaft has momentum, and only needs to be slowed a small margin.

In time, gear grinds will follow.

Once all contact points are greased (including the spline) you’ll truly appreciate the phenomenal shifting this car can achieve.

Many people grease the shifter, or experiment with fluid types, which only masks the problem. It also adds to gear cog wear, as you are masking the ability to feel the damage.

In 15 years, I’ve never greased a single shifter, or tried any other fluid, in an attempt to cover up a poorly disengaging clutch. A clutch job is the cure all.

Key points:

-spline is cleaned spotless, and lubed with superior grease
-guide collar is smooth with no gouges, and TO bearing recess is filled with grease
- fork tips greased, along with entire fork tip contact surface, 360 deg around the bearing
-clutch rod is set to ZERO freeplay, follow s2ki member Soviets fantastic DIY video

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.s2k...70e2f0f7a0.jpg
So I noticed that my clutch had wayyyy too much freeplay and so I did what y'all said and decided to try and adjust the clutch rod. When I went to go do this I noticed that it looks like it might actually be leaking. Does this look like a leak to you guys or just grease?

I went to test out your theory and noticed the clutch had way too much freeplay and that the engagement point was very small. I think my clutch rod is actually leaking and I just posted a picture to get yall's opinion.

Yes its leaking, as they all do when the fluid is not kept clean.

Suck out the fluid in the res, clean out with paper towels, then refill. Do it again in 3k miles, the leak will likely stop.

Thank you so much for help! Can always count on the s2000 community :D