HELP F355 - NO GEARS OR DRIVE

Hi everyone, I wonder if anyone can help me? I have a 1996 F355 Spider and my problem is that there isn't any drive to the gearbox. When I press down the clutch pedal, I can select all the gears OK but as I raise the clutch pedal back up to the biting point, there's a tiny amount of resitance/biting and then the biting stops completely and it feels as if the car is in neutral. I can actually select any gear without pressing down the clutch pedal, EVEN WHEN THE ENGINE IS RUNNING - it's as if the clutch pedal is fully depressed all the time. The clutch has never slipped and when I last drove the car (four weeks ago) both the clutch and gearbox were fine so I'm pretty sure it's not a worn clutch plate. The clutch pedal is just as heavy as usual and there aren't any puddles under the car, so it's not a fluid leak either. The only other thing I can think of is the clutch release bearing but would this failing/sticking cause the clutch to act as if it's fully depressed all the time? I guess it could also be a failed seal but as I mentioned earlier, the clutch feels like it normally does (heavy) and there aren't any visible leaks!!! I'd be grateful if anyone has any ideas of what the problem might be? I've spent 20 minutes this morning pressing the clutch pedal in and out just in case something freed up but unfortunately, it didn't help!!! I have a very good independant garage that I use but I alway like to get some idea of what the problem is prior to taking it in just in case they (and I) go down a costly wrong path. I guess I've been lucky so far as this is the only thing to go wrong with the car in four years and 10,000 miles.
Thanks very much
Frank

 

Just for fun I'm going to GUESS, input shaft.
Without visual inspection and verification that is all anybody can do.
You need to take it to a shop. Period.

 

Thanks for responding. The input shaft sounds like an expensive job so let's hope it's not that!!!

 

Hello,

While I understand that you had no problems with the car 4 weeks ago when you drove it, I think that it sounds like it could still possibly be clutch disc related. Ironically, just today I tried to move a car at my shop that had a friend clutch. I too, could select any gear with the clutch engaged, let the clutch out in gear and not stall, and most importantly, couldn't drive it anywhere. It seems like the input shaft could also be a likely culprit, but, I would think it is just as unlikely for that to randomly fail like a clutch disc would. Was there ANY discomfort driving the vehicle when you had it out last? Any possibility of the shift linkage having become disconnected, and so you are not actually selecting gears? Hope this might be of some diagnostic use. I wish you the best of luck, and please report back with your findings, I'm rather curious.

-The Josh

 

Take off the emergency brake. Put the car into first gear. Now, can you push the car forward?

 

Hi Josh, thanks for you input. The car drove perfectly 4 weeks with no discomfort. When I parked the car in my garage, I had my foot on the clutch when I switched off the engine so maybe it just stayed in that position??? I bet a clutch disk has broken or something. It's going in to the garage on Saturday so I'll report back their findings

 

I'll try that tomorrow and let you know

 

Engine is not connected to transmission. Clutch or input shaft. Of all the tranny issues, input shaft would not be too bad.

 

I've got my car back and everything is fine. The best guess of the mechanic was the quill shaft but when he stripped the car down, he found that the flywheel bolts had sheared off. That was a nice cheap repair; just some bolts and a bit of labour

 

Flywheel bolts?

Bolted to what?

 

Those are high quality bolts. They don't break unless they were overtightened at some point.

 

Interestingly, the bolts do not take the sheer. There are sheer studs that do that. Many times I take a car apart only to find them missing.

 

any photos?

 

So, without the shear studs the bolts DO take the shear...........and then fail.

 

Yep. Bolts are not made to high tolerance, so holes will have to be sized to account for variations in bolt size. Some bolts will end up carrying a lot of the shear, others will carry almost none. You will never be able to have them share shear load equally. Then you get a nice unzipping effect when the first one fails

This is why dowel pins are used, they are made to high tolerance and so the holes can be too.

For some reason, a lot of shops think the dowel pins are somehow optional, with sometimes appalling results.