New clutch problems

This discussion was created from comments split from: Your Credentials Please.

Help! I am a lost. I had a friend of a friend install a new clutch for me. (That was my first mistake). He did it in his garage and everything seemed fine. Then about 2 weeks later I noticed that when I pushed in the clutch to shift gears it would come out of gear fine but, did not want to go into gear without a wrestling match between me and the gear shift. It didn’t grind or make any noise it just refused to go into gear like I was pushing and some invisible wall had dropped preventing it from going back into gear. It doesn’t always do it. I have noticed no pattern in when it does it. Sometimes Ive been driving a while and it starts, other times I just started the car and within minutes of driving down the road it starts refusing to shift back into gear. I have noticed when It gets really bad I hear and feel this thumping or banging when I push the clutch in. When I pump the clutch a few times, sometimes this works to get it back into gear. At times it is sooo hard to put back into gear that I have had to use both hands on the clutch to force it into gear.? I have discussed this with some people they think it is my “pressure plate” (what ever that is). I do know that when the guy put the new clutch in he was not able to polish something down? The new clutch was installed about may 2012. Help!!! I am a single mother at a new job just coming off 2 years of unemployment so I need the cheapest solution. Could it be I simply need to fill my transmission fluid or something simple like that> Thanks for your help

@Sarahs Mom, it would likely help the other users to know about your car, like its make, model, and year, too.

Sounds like a bad master cylinder to me.