It seems as soon the engine is running I can't shift into any gear anymore. When engine is turned off I can shift through all gears... Any ideas, what the problem might be? '77 308
it sounds like the clutch is not fully disengaged when you are trying to shift into gear. I would check to see if the cable is stretched or needs to be adjusted. P.S. I love the 308 in white, so painfully pretty.
Sounds like the clutch. What happens if you start the car with it in gear instead of neutral (clutch to the floor)?
WATCH OUT! REMEMBER THAT IF THE CLUTCH IS INOPERATIVE THIS WILL MAKE THE CAR LURCH WHEN THE STARTER IS ENGAGED! Nonetheless, I agree, the clutch isn't disengaging. Have you driven the car recently? Washed it? I've rusted the clutch together before. You can try to break the rust bond free; get the car out to the street safely and start the engine in gear and you're rolling! Now you can try a bunch of throttle jabs and try jamming both the throttle and brake to get a lot of torque hammering through the clutch and it may well break free. Before you start this endeavor, think what your plan will be if it DOESN'T return to normal operation! Now you've got a car that's very challenging to drive; to stop it, you have to turn the engine off and you only have one gear per ignition cycle. I happen to have some parking lots at the end of my street, so I could turn around there with little worry. If you don't have one of those causes that may have stuck your clutch, check for operation at the bellhousing. There are directions in the owners guide or service manual on how to do that.
I don't hink it's the clutch. I can shift (clutch down) through all gears when it is not running. I can start the engine with clutch down in first gear (any gear), and everything seems fine...start driving, stopping everything is fine when staying in one gear. I can shift out to neutral, but then after that all gears seem to be blocked. Then when turning off the engine I can put it into gear again, start engine, start driving in that gear I had it in before starting the engine....
Still sounds like a clutch issue to me. The reason you can shift into gear when the engine is off is due to the input shaft not spinning and the output is at zero as well. The clutch when disengaged allows the input shaft speed to spin at an independent speed of the engine allowing the syncros to do their thing. Once the engine is running and the input is spinning, if the clutch does not fully disengage, the syncros can't match the input shaft speed to the required speed for the gear making it hard to shift into gear.
You should be able to move through the gears with the engine off and not using the clutch. Sounds like, as others have suggested, a clutch issue.
OK, so the clutch is usable to keep the car from moving, right? I'd look up that procedure to check travel of the throwout bearing, then. It seems possible your clutch isn't fully disengaging. If you press the clutch in to different depths while you're on level ground, in gear with your foot off the brake, when does the car start rolling?
Sounds like the clutch disc material has come apart and is lodged in between. When you depress the clutch, the pieces of material that are stuck are only letting you disengage the clutch partially. That is why you are able to "drive it normally" in a gear, but not able to shift normally. Equivalent as if you were pressing in the clutch 3/4 of the way and trying to shift. Did some of these clutch discs come with rubber centers? (Instead of the 4 springs.) If so, it could be that the rubber center has "exploded" and the pieces are lodged in between. This scenario was real common on certain model years of Porsche.
To confirm the clutch is dragging you could start the car with the rear on axle stands depress the clutch and put the car in gear, and see if the rear wheels start to turn.
When I had this issue it was a cracked diaphragm in the pressure plate. If the pressure plate isn't warped, you can have it rebuilt with a new diaphragm for not too much.
Be sure to take a flashlight and inspect down into the shift gate to make sure nothing is down there preventing shifts.
...so, today I (finaly) went to have another try/look. Now everything seems fine !?!? I can shift into gears again without a problem....strange? In the past I had on very rare occasions an issue getting the reverse gear in, which felt quite similar. But not being able to get any gear in when the engine is running was a new experience. Now that it seems to work again I will take it on a drive tomorrow and see how it behaves... thanks, jan
The not going into reverse sounds like either a linkage bushing issue and/or an alignment issue. So you can put her in 4th & start her & go? Doesn't she bog down? When my linkage bushing(s) went, I thought I was able to walk her through the gears at rest, but when I'd try & start she'd really only be going through 2th & 3rd and She'd bog down.
Still, something has to be up with the clutch. It wouldn't just fix itself sitting there. I just had to have my clutch gone through... new bearings and all. Drives awesome now but sucks when clutch problems arise.
This sounds overly simple but has the car sat for a long period of time without the clutch disengaged? One of my cars does this every spring. The disc becomes stuck to the flywheel that is why the trans can be shifted only if the engine is not turning.I have never had a problem with the 308 but I run her through the gears at least twice a month during the winter. (the 308 is kept in a heated space and my others are not)If this happens to be the issue just mechanically secure the depressed clutch peddle for long term storage and you won't be bothered with this issue . Lost
