Miata suddenly very hard to get into gear.

Hi all,

I tried doing a search and found one thread that discusses what might be a similar issue, but I thought that I'd try and get a bit more feedback.

I have a 1990 Miata and today it suddenly became very hard to shift into any of the gears while the engine is running. For example, if I am at a stop and the transmission is in neutral, I push in the clutch and try and put it in 1st, but I can't shift it into gear. As I try to push the shifter into 1st, this is accompanied by a spinning sound (maybe the throwout bearing?). I have to turn off the engine and then put it in 1st gear, start the engine and let out the clutch to get going. Once I do get going, it is very hard to shift. There is plenty of fluid in the clutch master cylinder and I can see the clutch fork moving when pressing on the clutch.

I suspect that it may be something in the bellhousing that is the issue. Any advice?

clutch not disengaging? Sounds like a broken finger on the pressure plate.

A clutch plate that is warped, or has detached friction material stuck in the interface could cause the gears to keep turning even when the clutch is supposed to be disengaged. A binding pilot shaft bearing could do the same thing. Of course, all those things would require tearing into it. And you mentioned that you can see the clutch fork moving, but is it moving full travel, as far as it should? If not, bleeding the system may take care of it.

Pull back the boot on the slave cylinder and see if there is fluid. Could be starting to fail and still moving the fork but not enough.

I had a bad throw-out bearing chew through the pressure plate fingers to give the exact symptom.

You have new weekend plans consisting of a new clutch kit installation.

I love how this board responds to a problem..."It could be this this or this" You need a new clutch and/or master/slave cylinder, have fun with your new weekend plans.

Every other board...

yo dued. if U hadz NOS it wuldn't mttr YOLO brah.

Had similar symptoms in my MR2, ended up being the clutch coming apart (spring had popped out). Like others have said though, I'd make sure your hydraulics aren't the culprit before removing the transmission.

In reply to Matt B:

I agree, check the hydraulics first, sounds like the clutch slave cylinder. Did you try pumping the clutch 4-5 times before attempting to engage 1st gear?

Be sure to post pics of the final found issue.

I had that happen on my 92 Miata and it ended up being one of the dampening springs in the clutch had popped out and was jammed between the clutch and pressure plate.

Thanks for all the feedback. A couple years ago I replaced the clutch slave cylinder because it was leaking and all of the fluid drained from the reservoir. It's been fine since then and there is still plenty of fluid in the reservoir and the slave cylinder does not appear to be leaking, so the hydraulics appear to be okay. Also, with the car in 1st and the clutch pedal pushed in, the car is not moving, so it seems that the clutch is disengaging fine.

If this was a project car, I'd attempt the clutch replacement on my own but given that this is my DD, I might just pay someone to go ahead and fix it right away.

Since you have replaced the slave cylinder, it is possible the clutch m/cylinder is the problem. Have someone operated the clutch and watch the slave for movement.

Depending on where you sourced the slave cylinder, I'd still check it. Might just be beginning to fail.

I replaced the clutch slave in my '91 with a new parts-store part and had it fail almost immediately.

My '97 is also a little recalcitrant to get into gear but the experience with the '91 has scared me off doing it again until it gets really bad.

If the pedal doesn't have a whole lot of freeplay, the hydraulics are fine. It sounds like it happened instantly, and that is generally a mechanical failure somewhere in the clutch assembly. Release bearing failed, pressure plate spring broke, spring in the center of the disc popped out, a piece of the friction material came off and jammed, the fork broke, or the pilot bearing seized.

That's the short list of clutch failures I have repaired.

Well, mystery solved. I had a buddy come over and help me remove the transmission and the clutch and look at what I found:

That was a big job to get this out, but I'm glad that all the work was not in vain. I noticed that it is an Exedy clutch, and I was planning on ordering the Exedy clutch kit from Rockauto, part number 10036 (which appears to be a different part number than the one that I pulled rom my car).

Should I be worried about replacing this broken Exedy with another Exedy clutch? the one I pulled from my car had at least 130,000 kms on it, so it's not like it broke right away.

We run those clutches in our racecars with zero issues.

I'd say you got a one-off failure there. There is nothing inherent about Exedy that would keep me from running on of their clutches, especially on a street type machine.

Yep, exactly what happened to mine as well (stock clutch I think though). I wouldn't worry about another Exedy.

Thanks for the feedback. I spent most of last Saturday with a friend helping me install the Exedy clutch kit mentioned above. This was the first clutch job that I didn't send out to a mechanic to do, so I was a bit nervous the first time I started up the car and let out the clutch pedal. I was very relieved that everything worked out! Had to adjust the cutch pedal pushrod a bit to get the clutch engagement point where I wanted it, but it's all good now.

Also, with the car in 1st and the clutch pedal pushed in, the car is not moving, so it seems that the clutch is disengaging fine.

Im glad you disregarded your own assumption here and kept going, but i just want to reiterate for anyone else that's reading that just because your car doesn't crawl in gear doesn't mean your clutch is fully disengaging, as you found out.

In fact, if you have a car that will go into gear with the car off but not while running, that's a dead giveaway for clutch not disengaging fully. One way that you can usually tell the clutch is still partially engaged is that most cars have unsynchronized reverse gears and if you move the shifter VERY SLOWLY toward reverse with the engine running, you can feel the point at which your reverse idler gear starts to contact gears that are still moving and sending that noise/sensation back up the shifter.

Also, springs popping out of a sprung hub is not unusual. Different clutch discs may have better or worse designs when it comes to retaining the springs, but if you really don't want it to ever happen again, just get an unsprung hub clutch disc. If you don't lug your 4cyl below ~1500rpm you probably won't even notice a difference.

Luckily, Ford Fairmont clutches have tiny springs and a lot of room between the hub and the flywheel. Also, it was fortunate that the spring chose to auto eject toward the flywheel. I had a few thousand miles of "what's that funny noise" before I had it apart to install an aluminum flywheel. I found a spring chillin' between the disk and the flywheel, right by the crankshaft hub. It was pretty chewed up, so it had been there a while.