Transmission / Clutch Failure/FRUSTRATION / DESPERATION

Hi I’m new here. I have a 95 Isuzu pickup that has a 2.3 L 5 speed transmission. We had it towed to a cousin of my boyfriend and he changed the clutch, clutch cable, well a complete clutch kit including cable. It’ a manual cable clutch. They put it all back in and now it is like completely locked up and will not move. There is absolutely no clutch at all and it will not disengage gear, cant get it into any of the four other gears. The gear shift is in the neutral position but it’s in gear. Please, someone on this site has to know what can be done to fix this. Desperate…

do you mean the clutch pedal will not move at all? or pushing it down does nothing?
Will the gear shift move around, or is it locked in place?

have your boyfriends cousin recheck their work and verify nothing is obviously wrong.

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The clutch goes down and stays down,the gear shift is in the neutral position and move but only moves to one gear, there is no neutral.

I think what you’re saying is when the shifter is in the neutral position the transmission remains in gear. Am I correct? If I am, that would indicate that Cousin Vinny messed up the alignment of the shift linkage. Easily correctable.

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Try bleeding the clutch slave cylinder line, follow the master cylinder reservior line that leads to the smaller reservoir thats holding brake fluid, once there now take that line and follow it downward into the area it connects with the slave cylinder and you will discover a bleeding port.
Its usually an 8mm or 10mm wrench size that will open it, and just like brake bleeding have someone help and press the pedal down and pull it up 3 to 4 times, with no pressure at first you may need to pull it up by hand for it to return and pump pressure into the line. Then hold pedal and only open the bleeder port while its held, then air air will spew out and then close it.
Do this a few times 4 or 5 should have your pedal pressure back working and get it in gear.
Pump the pedal 3 or 4 times each pass you make until its a decent clutch pedal with pressure and will shift easily. And by all means before bleeding the clutch line double check the slave cylinder fork is installed the correct direction as man th will fit on the release bearing backward and that will require the removal of the trans all over again. I hope its only low pressure caused by air in the line. Good luck, hope this helps you guys

She mentioned new clutch cable, so maybe no hydraulics here.

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The clutch shift cable should be manually operated and no fluid required as its only allocated to the gear shifter and all manual shifting vehicles require the hydraulic pressure via the pedal where it takes a good bit of boost to release the clutch plate. This is the only fluid needed as the cables are mounted on brackets with springs and metal sleeves held by washers and a lock pin so they wont fall off when anyone moves the shifter, solely the cables via shifter only allocate which gear it is placed in and of course the neutral position. In short 100% of clutch cables are a joines pair of 2, and one vertical and the other horizontal in position and lead directly to the gear shifter inside without fluid involved.

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According to the OP, the clutch is cable operated. That means no master cylinder, no slave cylinder, no bubbles, no bleeding.

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Someone familiar with that vehicle can get it sorted out, It’s likely that the shift lever was lifted off to allow lowering the transmission and when reinstalled the shift tab was not dropped in the neutral gate. But then there may be other problems also. Your boyfriend’s cousin’s knowledge is sorely lacking. But you already recognized that I’m sure.

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Thanks old_mopar_guy, my friend, it has been a bit too long since I have seen an isuzu, our old owner dropped the line and stuck with subaru and kia.
I worked on a pretty good amount of older rodeos and amigos and even a few troopers here and there. But my head did spin when isuzu made the vehicross so I stand under your isuzu guidance here and appreciate the refreshed memory. I may likely be older than I think I am haha! :joy:

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LOL yes cousin vinny is a dork to say the very least. I asked around and it is just a cable no hydraulics or slave or master cylinder. It is still stuck in gear but the snifter is in the neutral position… Please help cousin vinny I miss my little truck

:rainbow_flag: :rainbow:

:rainbow:That is correct, here is a photo from the top of the transmission. I never thought I would be learning about vehicles and how they operate but here I am doing just that lol. Thank you so much for the info. :rainbow_flag:

You are right old mopar guy :rainbow_flag:

:rainbow:Here is a photo taken from the top of the transmission with the gear shift out. :rainbow_flag: Oh Happy Valentines Day Everybody. :rainbow_flag:

First thing I suspected is that the clutch plate was not installed “this side to front”, in other words, backwards. Another possibility is that something got stuck between the clutch plate and either the flywheel or the pressure plate. A loose bolt would be a possibility.

If it is possible, the throwout bearing could be installed backwards, it would also do much the same thing. Last possibility would be the clutch cable was not installed correctly but that would be only if the clutch cable is self adjusting. Those self adjusting ones are not for amateurs to install.

Edit, if it is a manual adjust cable and they did not reset the adjustment back to zero, the cable will have to be disconnected at one end and readjusted back to zero and reconnected, then properly adjusted.

If pressing the clutch pedal seems to maneuver the clutch release arm correctly, and the shift linkage seems to be correct, the only alternative I can think of is to remove the transmission and determine what’s wrong by just looking at it while it is on the work bench. Your repair guys might spend more time experimenting , trying this , trying that than just going back to square one. I expect whatever it is, it will be simple to fix once the transmission is out.

:rainbow:Fantastic news guys, he listened to one of you he finally like took a bent screw driver I think he said, stuck it down where the gearshift goes and lined something up which put it in the real neutral and suddenly got clutch by adjusting the cable. Hey a shout out goes out to everyone of you for the input. I would kiss each and everyone of you if I could. My little truck is back on the road just in time, I have a lip sync performance to do. Thank you again, Yayyyyyyyy!

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Good for you. Glad you are back on the road. Just goes to show, never throw away a bent screwdriver :wink: … Sounds like the problem was what @Rod_Knox was talking about above, mis-positioned shift-tab.

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Yes @George_San_Jose1. A mis-positioned shift tab and an unqualified wannabe mechanic. It’s a tough learning curve for all but really tough for the impatient who refuse to go back and check their work. Of course if that vehicle had a T-5 it had the single rail shifter that was a little more difficult to get properly positioned but actually it should never have been knocked out of neutral when removing the lever.

But congratulations @jwildtg_163182. And thanks for posting your success.

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