transmission problems, i'm baffled!

[92accordexpower]

Ok, so i was coming home from the street races up here in upstate ny tonight, i didn't race, just spectating, but lots of driving too and from races. I was coming home on the interstate, cruisin right along, when i noticed a vibration in the front end, folled by an indescribable smell. so i proceeded to pull over to the side of the road, and inspect CV shafts, and lug nuts, no problems apparent.

So i went to go again, figured musta been a freak thing, and nothing would happen. the clutch pedal felt fine, but made no difference in putting the car in gear. The transmission acted like the clutch was engaged permanently. I could shift into any gear without the clutch, and the car wouldn't move. So i had my father come, tow me back to the house, because i was close. partway to the house, in tow, for shits n giggles i put it gear, and noticed it caught. so i disconnected from the tow, and proceeded to drive around the driveway like nothing was wrong....

i thought for sure originally i blew the clutch, but not nothings wrong, so i'm a little confused as to wtf is going on. The clutch disk is still pretty new, i inspected it less than 1000 miles ago, and i haven't had ANY signs of slipping.

So does anyone have any idea what could have happened here? Any insight is appreciated. I got the next couple days off, so changing a clutch if i have to isn't a big deal, but i have no idea whats goin on here!

[NAiL05]

Maybe pressure plate goin out. If it was engaged permanently was it still driveable? When you drove it again were you able to replicate the symptoms?

[92accordexpower]

by the time i got home it was 3:30 i didn't feel like screwing around with it. what i meant was it acted like the clutch was permanently disengaged (pedal on the floor)

[92accordexpower]

alright so i took the car out today, to test it out. i went down my road, shifted 1st, second, 3rd nothing abnormal. but pretty much as soon as i started in third, i head a pop, and it stopped putting power into the transmission again.
so once again, had my father tow me home checked it out. from what i can tell, the clutch is disengaging itself, and i don't know how. by the looks of it, but hard to tell, i can see the clutch and it looks like it's about halfway in. i can tell this too because if i slide it in 3rd gear or higher with the car stopped and without touching the clutch, i can feel a slight grind, but with the clutch pedal down, it doesn't grind, so seems like the clutch is grabbing ever so slightly.

would a throwout bearing maybe fix the problem?

[HF22T]

check the slave cylinder lift the wheels off teh ground chuck the rear wheels and ebrake them just in case make sure its on jack stands and have someone look at it as you do that run the car until it does that it coudl be a few things a flywheel bolt also coulf have come loose ive heard of it happening b4 if all else fails pull the tranny and inspect everything
also check and make sure the master is not leaking could be a bad seal check under the dash thats where it woudl leak at

[rlyons]

Sounds like the pressure plate or the center is broken out of your clutch.

[92accordexpower]

ok so whats the best way for changing the clutch. i've pulled/installed the engine/transmission twice now, but all at once, and i've replaced the clutch while it was apart, so thats not a big deal, but how about taking just the transmission out?
my plan is get it jacked up, pull the CV shafts, pull all the lines/linkages going to the tranny, pull all the bolts form the bell housing, pull the tranny mount and go from there...
so what am i missing, any tricks to make it easier.
and big question, can i get away with pulling only the passenger CV shaft, or will i have to pull the driver CV and intermediate too?
thanks again guys

[rlyons]

I am not sure on the standard transmission but on my automatic I had to take the bolt out of the dogbone mount on the front to allow the engine to drop a little for clearance to get the transmission out. You should remove both axles before dropping the transmission. Other than that I think you have the idea. Check your clutch disc closely for cracks in the metal, broken springs and failed rivets if you don't see anything obvious.

[wrichards2005]

Just get a clutch kit, it should solve the problem. Sounds like it could be a throwout bearing or a pressure plate on the way out.

[92accordexpower]

ok so i did it today....
i noticed while i was underneath that my intermediate shaft was unbolted from the engine, must have been from me not tightening the bolts enough on my last swap, but stupidly i didn't think anything of it.

so after all that was off, i dropped the engine down a little, and pulled the transmission out, and down, and off.

so i pulled the pressure plate, and the clutch disk, expecting to find something awful, to find exactly what you see below.... a moderately worn clutch disk, with a slightly glazed pressure plate thats all. apparently what happened was the bolts backed out of the intermediate shaft where it attatches to the engine block, and when that happened, the intermediate shaft pulled out of the differential, enough for the threads to come out of the actual diff gear. with an open diff like that, when one side has nothing, it will spin free and not deliver any torque to the other side. the first thing i actually checked for when the problem happened was a broken CV shaft, and i checked where the CVs got to the intermediate shaft, and to the diff on the passenger side, one place i didn't check was where the intermediate goes into the trannny!!!

so now the tranny's out of the car, for no reason at all.

so i am officially the biggest idiot ever.

so here's the next question...
i got this luk clutch kit that i was going to put in, but now i don't need to, and the clutch disk in there now is an exedy stage 1. so should i use the luk throwout bearing and pressure plate with the exedy clutch disk, or just put it back the way i had it?
and if not, does anyone wanna buy a luk clutch kit? or trade+cash for a stage 1 or 2 or 3 disk?

[92accordexpower]

click on each picture to enlarge

[92accordexpower]