88 prelude clutch problem

This morning I went out to drive the prelude on a quick errand. The car was
working fine yesterday. After driving two blocks-- I started having trouble
with the gear changes. The clutch pedal felt as usual, but I turned around
quickly and by the time I got the car home, I could not shift the car into
any of the gears. The clutch pedal feels pretty good, but the clutch will
not disengage and engage. Any advice or help would be appreciated. FWIW,
the clutch has never slipped at all.

Thank You,

Matthew Brown
Memphis

 

try droppin the tranny out and checking the pressure springs in the pressure
plate.

 

Begin by checking the clutch action at the trans. Is it a cable or
hydraulic?

 

Ya if Cable then could be stretched/loose or broken and if hydraulic maybe
loss of pressure in the line from the slave cylinder to the master cylinder.

- - - - - - -
dave

 

Your clutch is Hydraulic. Fill up the fluid resorvoir on the firewall
right above the steering column using regular brake fluid. You may
have to pump it a few times to get it going again. Your clutch slave
cylinder is probably leaking causing the resorvoir to loose fluid.

 

That is what has me perplexed-- I do not seem to be losing any fluid. I
topped it up (less than 1/2 ounce), and the problem does not seem to get any
better. When I first start the car after sitting for a little while, the
clutch will work well enough to allow the shifting of gears. After about 5
seconds or so, the shifting of gears becomes impossible.

Thanks for your input

 

Hi Matthew,

Be a good thing to be sure before you give up on the idea it might be the
hydraulics. Pick up a $20 hand-operated vacuum pump and quart of brake
fluid at your local auto parts and bleed the system. Certainly won't hurt
to refresh the fluid. Also, look for fluid up under the dash on the
firewall -- if the master cylinder's leaking, that's where you'll see it.

The bad news you already know -- if it's not the hydraulic master-slave
clutch system, then you have to pop off the tranny to see what's going on.
Been there, done that.. On my '94 del sol, it turned out to be a piece of
metal broken off of the clutch disk and jammed between the pressue plate and
disk not letting the disk disengage -- made for real unpredictable clutch
operation as the broken piece floated around in there. You could have
something similar. You could have some broken/bent/wornout release fingers
on the pressure plate. You could have bent something. Only way to tell is
to take a look.

If you have the time, space, and tools . . . Mine took me a day to pull
the tranny, a week to wait on parts, and a day to put it all back together.

Good Luck,
-rock-