Son of a bitch it does it again...

The clutch was sticking to the floor last night and I got it home somehow and shut it off but now the car even though the shifter is in the neutral position is stuck in reverse. the Clutch is still sticking to the floor and at the same time it won't get out of reverse and won't shift into any other gear. I checked clutch fluid and it's all good but right now it's stuck and I have no other car to drive at the moment and insight is appreciated.

 

Start checking your clutch hydraulics. See if the slave cylinder is moving as you move the clutch pedal. If not, it's possible you killed your clutch master cylinder, slave cylinder, or both.

Could also be a broken clutch fork or something more crazy. Pull the inspection plate on the bottom of the tranny and see what's going on.

This is going to be a simple problem - there isn't that much to the clutch system. Get in there and figure out what's wrong.

Dale

 

the clutch not working is prob simple but it not coming out of reverse with the car off is a bad sign...

 

Yeah the clutch doesn't seem to be such a big deal but what's really got me is that even though the shifter is in neutral the actual tranny is in reverse gear. The car will start up but as soon as you let the clutch out it'll start backing up and trying to put it into any other gear won't do anything it just won't go into them it seems like it's just hitting a wall and I don't wanna force it or anything.

 

sounds like the clutch fork is jacked is doing nothing when you move the shifter

 

Alright it sounds dumb but I don't know too much about tranny's where is the inspection plate on the tranny? I looked all through the FSM but I couldn't find anything that specified what the plate was or looked like. Anyone have any pictures of it?

 

its on the bottom of the bell housing. its held on by 2 10mm bolts, its about 3"x3" in size. sorry i dont have a picture

 

^ awesome thanks I should be able to figure out what it is now

 

does the shifter still feel right? the plate will let you see the clutch but thats about it. if the shifter is not jacked up, is it stock? it souds like the shift selector fork in the trans is shot seeing as how it will not come out of reverse with the car off

 

To add to what was already posted, the inspection plate is on the bottom passenger side of the bellhousing.

Remove it and shine a flashlight in there, have somebody sit in the car and depress the clutch (have them pull it off the floor by hand). When it's working correctly, you should see the clutch slave push forward, which moves (pivots) the clutch fork and pulls the throwout bearing/snap ring towards the rear of the car.

 

Alright basically the clutch is working fine and even though it's sticking to the floor when we pull it up and depress it works fine when looking at it from the inspection plate also the shifter isn't stock it's a short throw shifter

right now the shifter is still stuck in the neutral position but when you let the clutch out when the car is on it starts to go backwards because the transmission is in reverse gear

 

maybe the bottom of the shifter is broken or something. Pull center console out and the rubber dust cover which has like 4 10mm bolts. then pull the shifter assembly out. its only 3 10mm bolts to get it out. You should know pretty quick if there is something wrong with the shifter. otherwise it sounds more like something within the transmission. If somehow your shifter did break you will need to figure out a way to get whatever is remaining in there out. What kind of short shifter is it? did this shifter ever work or was it recently installed and never worked correctly? just curious though i would think this would have been mentioned in your original post. keep us updated

 

Alright I ordered new slave and master from Ray at Malloy Mazda and they got here the next day and I put them in tonight. After bleeding the system and doing all the BS procedure stuff the clutch works like a pro but the tranny is still stuck in reverse. I will try pulling the shifter tomorrow and looking to see if it broke or anything. The shifter is what the previous owner called a "Mazda sport short shifter". Basically the shifter will move to the left towards the 1st and 2nd gears but won't go into those gears and won't even let you push it over to the right towards 5th and reverse gear. I am hoping that the shifter is the problem because I was planning on driving to Mazdapalooza on Saturday in the FD but I might have to end up taking the GF's Rx-8 there instead

 

Alright so I took off the shifter assembly and everything seemed to be fine, nothing broken and the little plastic thing at the end of the metal ball fit fine and nothing seemed to be wrong. When I was putting it back in I did see this fall out and but I am unsure of actually what it is. Now would this metal ring make it so that the car was stuck in reverse or won't shift? here's the pictures

 

Sorry for the giant second picture but basically the first picture is what the ring looks like but it's broken and the second is the ring put together to show what it should look like whole. It looks warped but then again I am not sure if it is supposed to look that way.

 

Unless that ring was somehow in the transmission it wouldn't be the cause. It just goes under the shifter and yes the natural shape is warped. Was that shifter ever working correctly?

 

Yeah the shifter always worked wonderfully it was in the car for 10k miles so I never had any problems with it. Has anyone else had this problem?? I really need to get this car working it's been a week now and nothing I have done has worked... Think I should just take it in to a tranny shop?