Hey, a new guy here. I hope someone may have a little insight for me. I have a ''91 Tracer LTS with a 5-speed. I''ve owned for five years. I bought the car to be my daily driver, and winter car to save the mileage on my T''bird. But I can''t seem to stop driving it. Until this summer. Mechanically the car is subpurpe (spell check). I try to keep it that way. I had to replace the speed sensor and half shaftswhen I got the car but have had no other problems. But now it has developed a shifting problem. The release bearing has been a little noisey for about a year, but not cranky. One day driving home, it jammed in second gear and wouldn''t come out. So I had to limp home (only a few miles). Once here. I couldn''t get it to come out of gear, at all. I was afraid I was going to break the shifter I was pulling so hard. A day or so later I went out and tried again,with a little effort,it popped out! So I took it out for a drive. It will shift now, but I have to be careful and easy with it. Sometimes it doesn''t want to go into gear, or some times it doesn''t want to come out. It seems to happen more the longer I drive it, so i just take infrequent short trips. In fact I''ve only driven twice this summer. I''ve pulled the speed senser and checked it, and the fluid level. I''ve bleed the hydrolic system and checked for leaks, andleak down of the master, slave, and clurch release cylinders. all appear ok. My question is, Is there some inherant transaxle problem? Does it sound like a transaxle or clutch problem? Maybe the shifter is out of wack? It is sloppy? I''m disable swith alimited income. So Before I run out and assume that it''s the clutch?[img]smileys/smiley19.gif[/img]Any experiance and insight with these drive trains would be a great help. Thanls for any help you can give! Take care!! .....

 

I don''t think it was the clutch that locked it in 2ND gear. Is the clutch worn out? Slipping or grabbing too high or low? I''m guessing the throw-out bearing may be to blame. It sounds like it''s done being cranky. LOL! What''s the mileage on her? Another model I''m unfamiliar with, the "LTS". Just read a post about a "LTS" Sable. Huh. Let me know.

 

Free play and pedal hight is within spec.. It has about 137,000 miles on it. It had 129,000 when I bought it 5 1/2 years ago. It was a one owner military guys car, according to a carfax. I got it for 350.00 bucks off of a local used car lot. The mechanic couldn''t get it running. The Tracer LTS is (basically) an upscale, 4-door Escort GT. Funny thing is, I didn''t know about the LTS until I was researchingon the net to get a small carto save the mileage on my T''bird. When I came accross it, I couldn''t pass it up. You just don''t see them. And I like things a little different too. I had to rebuild the injecters, and replace the EEC to get it going. Then brakes, half shafts, speed senser, and a few odds and ends. I suspect it may be the original clutch. I tried "Popping" the clutch once after I got it running, it did slip. So I haven''t done it since. If I let it out first, then nail it, it will fry the tires. If I try to speed shift it, it revs abit before it completely grabs hold. So, I don''t. I guess you can say I''ve been lucky. I suspect it may be the syncronizers because Like you said, I can''t see the clutch causing it to stick in gear. My experiance is mostly with good ole, all American rear wheel drive iron. Not front wheel drive imports. I thought maybe someone might know of a certain problem that plagues these. Like the fuel gauge sender in the gas tank on these cars go bad after a few years. My gas gauge still says full when it''s nearly empty. Thanks for your help so far!!