car will not go into gear

darkarrow

New Member
May 1, 2005
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i have a 1993 mustang gt convertible with a manual transmission, and for the last few weeks the car has been hard to put into gear, but last night i was driving and all of the sudden the clutch pedal felt like there was no weight or tension on it, and i couldnt change gear, unless i put about all 200lbs of weight into the shifter(not smart but i was less than a mile from home). Its an automatic adjusting clutch(pull back on the pedal and push it in 1st gear) and everything is stock, and i replaced the throughout bearing in March, and everything has been perfect until i have been driving back and forth from college and i began to notice the transmission began to get harder to shift. when i push in the clutch pedal and try to put the car into gear, it acts like the transmission is blocking the shifter and the engine acts like the clutch is still engaged because the RPM's drop and the engine begins to bog. i think its the linkage between the clutch and the pedal because i cant put the car into gear, but what is your take on the situation, i would appreciate any help i could get.
 
The clutch quadrant is most likely broken. Summit sells the kits to fix them, it would be under a clutch quadrant and firewall adjuster. Also, you might as well get a new cable for it while your in there.
 
Agreed. You have tried pulling up on your pedal to adjust it?

A lot of folks go with the UPR quadrant, stock cable and a FWA (from UPR, et al).

Good luck.
 
is there a way to look at the quadrant without removing the dash, because i think the cable maybe be broken instead of the qudrant, but im at college and i dont know anyone with jacks, and my car isnt going anywhere right now.
 
You dont need to remove the dash to change the quadrent. If your a really big guy you might want to remove the driver seat. It is pretty tight and really uncomfortable. I did it without removing anything.
 
The quadrant is above the gas pedal, and accessed from below the dash. I think the article linked-to above outlines it pretty well.
 
darkarrow said:
is there a way to look at the quadrant without removing the dash, because i think the cable maybe be broken instead of the qudrant, but im at college and i dont know anyone with jacks, and my car isnt going anywhere right now.

wow, sounds 100% exactly what happened to my car like 2 months ago, was driving home from work, went to shift, then BAM pedal hits floor, no tension nadda. looking at the quadrant isnt hard and requires no dissasembly, u just need to know what to look for and get ur head as far under the dash as possible. mine wasnt broke and so i didnt fix it. somehow the clutch fork popped off the pivot inside the housing. driving it home with no clutch did help, but also the clutch was shot and so i replaced it, it was in fragments. OW Yea, so id just make sure the quadrant isnt fugged, see if the cable pulls all the way to the bell housing. then if everything is ok after those, then its time to drop the tranny.
 
Hey hissin, thanks, but you forgot the link!!!!!

It could be a stretched cable too.

read up on the link in my signature, it should answer all your questions.
 
the quadrant is good, so is the pawl, and i disconnected the clutch cable and pulled on it, and the cable didnt pull out of the tube, so now i have to get under the car. when i pull back and forth on the cable, it sounds like, under the car, the end of the cable is flopping around in the dust cover, where it connects with the fork? i dont drive hard so i dont think my fork could have broken or bent?
 
itd be kinda hard to break it, bend it too i would think, its not really prone to doing that, it could have popped off the pivot inside, the spinrg that holds it on, well sorta holds it on, lol, mighta broke. i heard that happen to a friend of minea few years back. yea could be a stretched cable, but if it isnt loose when u put the clutch down, its inside. at least it sounds like a better time for it to go than mine, i was supposed to go to the track the next day :(

EDIT: next step is pull the dustcover and try to look inside, unless the cable pulled out and off the fork or something, and see what might be going on in there. keep us updated.
 
good news found the problem, but bad situation, the throughout bearing shattered, dug into the fingers on the pressure plate and gouged into the clutch, :damnit: i dont know how or why. i have babied the car my whole life and i just replaced the throughout bearing in march, so yeah it all f-ed. but now since this is my second time in one year to replace the throughout bearing it should be alot easier. joy. but thank you all who posted, it helped alot.