my clutch seem to stay in engaged even though the clutch pedal is fully depressed for a few secs causing the gear to stay in gear and not let me change gears or go into neutral. the fluid was changed 5k, 5-6 months ago and my tranny fluid was changed 1.5k, 2 months ago. tried doing a search but didn't pick up much.

 

Do you mean like this:

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=478474

 

as per your instructions in that thread, the tranny doesn't shift smooth in all three scenarios. but i guess if i get into gear and then row through them then its okay. but if its the first try on a cold tranny than its not smooth. i also haven't lost pedal feel and the engagement has been the same.

so would that be a tranny=>synchro problem?

 

I'd say it's more likely a clutch problem and very possibly rusted splines as Bill suggested. Problem is there's only one way to find that out for sure - pull the transmission.

 

This sounds exactly like the rusty spline issue we were discussing in the other thread.

 

ahh i need more lube! sounds expensive. if i waited on getting this checked would this exacerberate problems later on with the tranny?

 

I'm not sure, so hopefully Bill will drop in and comment. Since it is possible to shift without grinding without even depressing the clutch it should be possible to drive the car with the clutch disk frozen to the pressure plate (except for when you had to stop ), so my guess is that it all depends on how much trouble you have driving around the problem. As long as you can shift in a way that avoids the binding (in the shifter) then I think you'll be OK. If you can't, then you're probably going to eat up the synchros (but I'm not really sure about that either). If Billman doesn't confirm my thinking on this (or tell me that I'm full of crap ) then maybe you should PM him. Better safe than sorry.

 

Based on the problems I had with the bad pressure plate (related in symptoms but different in cause):

If you can be content learning to drive the car the way it is now you'll be fine for a while at least. If you're patient and blip the throttle when you need to to disengage the clutch and learn to shift to fourth when stopped and then to first and never try to force things you'll probably be OK until you decide it's time to address the problem.

But eventually you're going to need to pull the tranny to address the issue whether it's rusty splines or something else. At that point if it were me I'd replace the pilot bearing, throwout bearing, pressure plate, and clutch disk while the patient's on the table. That would also be a good time to insure the splines on the tranny shaft are well lubed.

 

Since the transmission has to come out it only makes sense to install a new clutch disk.
Also an excellent opportunity to install an ACT Streetlight flywheel and ACT pressure plate.
(And don't forget the new throwout bearing. )

Do the job so that you won't have to go back in for a long time.

I asked Billman about this yesterday, and he said that it is important to clean all the rust off the splines (using a wire brush) and to make sure that they were fully covered with a thin coat of thick grease to prevent future rusting. Fix it right once and it should be good to go for a good long time.

 

I forgot the part about replace/resurface the flywheel.

But yeah, do it like it's the last time you'll be in there.