Please help 1990 Nissan Stanza 5 speed transmission and clutch problems

I have a 1990 Nissan Stanza with a 5 speed manual transmission. Recenty it has been getting harder and harder to get into 5th gear and reverse which are on the far right using the shift lever. The mechanic I use said to get a shifting rod that goes from the bottom of the shifting lever to the transmission. So far I haven’t been able to find what he described by doing a search. Can anyone tell me specifically what to do a search for?

Also in case anyone is familiar with this the clutch gets soft and spongy. This has been going on a long time. I used to get out and bleed it and that helped for a very short while then it was back to getting soft again. As time went on I learned to put it in neutral and pump the clutch and it would start to feel pretty solid again. It still sux though. Recently that doesn’t work well any more and I have to pull the clutch pedal out with my foot, which sux a lot! I took it to the mechanic and he changed the “master cylinder” which someone else said is really the slave cylinder. Anyway after he changed it the problem is still the same as it was before he changed it. To me it feels like air must be slipping in somewhere but why did it pump up good pressure before and why did it stop doing so recently? I’m totally ignorant about this sort of thing…

Thank you for any help or suggestions!

David
Maine, USA

Both master and slave cylinder need to be free of internal or external leaks, pipes and connections between them, too. Your mechanic isn’t helping you enough - s/he knows how to obtain parts or ought to. I’d be looking for someone else, or learning how to do it myself.

It’d be unusual for that rod between the base of the shift lever and the trans to need replacement. Maybe it got bent. Otherwise it is a matter of adjusting connections and maybe replacing a bushing along the route between the shift lever and the trans.

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She/he? Mechanic? We are going downhill. Before warren, we might not say she/he.

Which is exactly why the use of “they” has become so common.

Have you had to top off the clutch MC fluid to bring it to the proper level? How often? If you’ve been having to add fluid there’s probably an external leak in the slave cylinder. I expect a 1990 Stanza uses a clutch release fork arrangement, so the slave cylinder is outside the transmission. That’s good news b/c it shouldn’t be overly expensive to replace. Suggest get everything working properly between the clutch pedal and the release fork working before considering other less likely causes. If you later find you have to replace something in the linkage between the shifter and the transmission, your best bet for those sorts of parts is probably an auto-recycling business; i.e. used part from a wrecked Stanza. .