My 97 civic has 215K miles on the tranny but I never had issues until this winter. It won't go into gear when it runs. When it's off i can get find them all with no issues. It ran great until yesterday. I started it. Left it running for a minute or two and when I came back out something was howling. Loud and high pitched. By the time I got in the car it stopped and I drove it with no problems. This morning, it wouldn't go into gear. No clutch at all. The pedal felt normal. I had the master fail two months ago and had both master and slave cylinders replaced. It has full fluid, no leaks, I bled it, no air, and I do not think the problem is related to the hydraulic clutch or linkage. There is clearly something wrong. Bearings maybe, synchros maybe, clutch issue...I don't really have time to tinker with it so I'm inclined to just get a transmission and swap everything. It would be faster and I wouldn't risk missing something and putting bad part back on.
First off, does it sound like a transmission issue?
Are there used or rebuilt transmissions for this car around for a few hundred bucks?

my wife said this happened to her last week too. It wouldn't go into gear same as this morning. She turned it off and opened the hood to look at the hydro clutch reservoir. When it was full she shut the hood. Got in the car to try it again and it worked fine. I'm not sure what could fail, only sometimes, but that may be a clue worth mentioning.

Any help is appreciated

 

It's a clutch issue. Most likely the throwout bearing flew apart or the clutch disc spit a spring. Either way you'll need to pull the transmission.

 

thanks! Do you think the problem will be obvious when I get to the clutch? I know I can get to the parts myself, but I don't know if I'll know what to look for. Thanks for the reply

 

Yes it should be quite obvious as to what has failed. If there is any doubt you can always post pictures in this thread.