amej8

This is going to be a long *** post. But I'm going to lay out every detail I can so you guys can diagnose the problem easier. I don't NEED the car like it's a life or death situation. I can drive my parents car for now. But ideally, I don't want to rack miles up on their car and waste gas since it's a gas guzzling SUV.

Car: 99 honda civic ex, stock and original d16y8 engine / transmission (rebuilt 2nd gear 2 times I believe) / clutch with 219k miles.

On Wednesday, I drove to my drum lesson. It drove fine. It's been driving the same since I've gotten the car at 141k. I get to the drum lesson. I leave. It still drives fine. Literally about an 1/8 of a mile into my drive home, the clutch starts feeling stiff. I keep shifting, it gets more stiff. I keep shifting, it gets to the point where I can't shift into gear anymore and the clutch is solid as a rock after going down halfway. I get out, look in the engine bay (don't know what the hell I'm looking for), everything seems okay to me, I try to go again. Nothing. Won't happen. I make some phone calls asking if anyone knows anyone that can hook me up with a tow home because its like 10 miles...and literally on my LAST phone call to a friend, he tells me to look at the clutch fluid reservoir and it's basically bone dry. I've been pumping air into the system. So he comes and bleeds the system and puts new fluid in. While we were bleeding, the clutch pedal went back to normal feel. Very soft..perfect. He tells me to try and go so I get back into the car after examining the reservoir after the flush, the clutch felt stiff (not even 20 seconds after finishing the flush) and it's back to square 1. I get it towed to my friends house and leave it overnight.

Now fastfoward to tonight. He replayed the master cylinder, cleaned the old fluid out, put new fluid in, we bled the system until straight fluid was coming out. Try to go...nothing, doesn't work. He goes to take the slave cylinder off and was having a hard time getting the line off of it so he took the slave off first to hold it in the air and have more room to be able to get the wrench on the line and get it off...and notices the lever the slave attaches to is really stiff. It hardly moves. He breaks it free with a hammer, says thats better, hooks the slave back up, and tells me to give it another shot. Sees the slave push on the lever when I pushed in the clutch to turn the car on. Still nothing. Won't go into gear. So we talk for a while and decide it's gotta be something with the clutch. Or flywheel, or bearing, spring...I have no clue. I don't know much about this stuff.

I can shift the transmission with the car off and on a level surface. I drove the car home without a clutch with no problem. The transmission works fine still. What's weird is on the way home, I pushed the clutch in while I was moving, and the clutch disengaged and I was able to rev the engine, but when I tried shifting out of gear and into the next one, it wouldn't go in. So clearly the clutch is disengaging if I can rev the engine. The clutch just isn't letting me shift into gear.

What do you guys think?

amej8

Here's a picture of the release fork, clutch in and out, pictures layered to show movement:

David @ Synchrotech

iTrader: (1)

Since you lost all the fluid there is a leak somewhere. Check behind the mastercylinder where the pedal connects and see if it is wet and under the boot on the slave.

If your friend was hammering on the fork where the slave connects, he probably broke one of the ears off of the throw out bearing. If this is the case, a simple hydraulic repair has now turned in to a transmission removal to fix the damage.

amej8

The master cylinder was leaking. It was replaced with a new one. Slave cylinder has yet to be replaced. My friend has a spare one he's going to toss in and try. He wasn't hammering on the fork. He very lightly tapped on it twice and it moved so he thought it was better. Evidently not .

David @ Synchrotech

iTrader: (1)

It is probably just the master and slave - Good luck with the repair.

amej8

With everything everyone is telling me, I was starting to think it was the TOB and/or clutch. But to be quite honest, I have NEVER had issues with the transmission (other than rebuilt 2nd gear which was 3+ years ago). Sure the clutch slips because it's old, but I have never had any other issues. I was at the track just 3 or so weeks ago, did 7 pulls, and it held up fine and has shown no more wear than it already has since then.

I'm hoping it's just the slave that went bad after pumping air through it along with the master cylinder. It's the only "logical" thing I can come up with. I don't pound through gears.

amej8

Replaced the slave and it didn't do anything. The clutch fork barely moves. The pedal feels normal until the last 25% or so. It gets VERY stiff and again, the clutch fork barely moves. It looks like the fork is stuck almost all the way out.

If anyone can recommend me a decent street clutch kit with a lightened fly wheel, I may take that route. I drove a friends car with a street clutch (non-puck) and lightened flywheel and I absolutely LOVED the feel that the car grabbed when the pedal barely left the floor. If it ends up being more than I want to spend, I'll just go with an OEM kit or something if someone could show me prices for those as well.