Sudden, no symptongs before- clutch stuck engaged?

2001 v6 4x4 with the trimmings.

I just finished a 1k road trip through the mountains. No symptoms at all. New clutch about 15-20k miles ago.
Parked it at night in a garage (i'm travelling for work).
I got up in the morning started the engine, and truck wouldn't shift into gear at all. I have done various things:

-rolled back and forth (no dice)
-checked fluids (plenty, no foam/bubbles that I can see)
-truck will (usually) shift in and out of gears when off. When I do that, it feels smooth.
-no fluids under truck at any point.
-from neutral, if I try to push it into gear, it does roll a tiny bit.

What could be going on here? It seems so all of a sudden.

 

Automatic or 5 speed?

Is the shifter stuck and can't move, or does it flop around without going into gear?

 

It's a manual 5 speed. Once in gear, it won't shift into or out of gears or neutral. When it's off, it shifts smoothly. It's not floppy.

 

It does sound like the clutch might not be disengaging, or perhaps there is an issue with the master or slave cylinder. If you push in the clutch while in neutral with the engine running, can you hear the input shaft stop spinning? I know it would be tough to hear it anyway, but figured I would ask.

Is this with the engine running and the clutch pedal depressed?

 

I'll check this, thanks!

 

yes.

 

yes- clutch, pressure plate, bearing, flush (IIRC)

 

Bleed your master/slave and see if it fixes it. Could have had a pinhole leak introducing air in the line and it's not disengaging all the way.

Could be a cracked clutch fork. But you would usually feel it in the pedal since it will feel a lot lighter.
Also, just throwing this out there but could be the clutch disk was installed backwards. This is possible that it works fine for a bit and then just fails. I will find the thread for you. Not trying to scare you but an idea as this is possible to do on these trucks.

 

Happened to me, incompetent shop installed the clutch plate backward. My symptoms were basically that of a failing clutch, except instead of it happening over the course of 150k miles it happened over the course of maybe 800 miles and a couple of weeks. Difficulty getting into gear mostly, but I didn't have the trouble the OP is describing (getting out of gear)

Not to say it can't happen though, if there's something wrong with the install who knows what kind of trouble that could cause. I would try bleeding the clutch first since that's relatively easy and rule that out

 

sure, but i'd think something would have shown before 15k was put on it, wouldn't you?

 

This happened to me about 3 weeks ago. Pedal would stick to the floor, couldn't get it out of gear. It came on rather sudden. Turned out my 20-year old clutch master cylinder was bad. I ended up replacing the master and slave cylinder myself (Aisin brand) for quite cheap.

The way I diagnosed the problem is I pushed in and held the clutch pedal while observing the slave cylinder push rod and clutch fork on the transmission (you might need a helper for this, I just have a long reach). I could see the push rod extend and then a few seconds later it would retract halfway. If your clutch hydraulics are too far gone you might not even get enough push rod movement to shift into gear.

 

Sounds like a hydraulic issue - slipping clutches aren't usually going to do that at all and if it didn't go "boom" it would weird for it to fail when parked.

 

Ya,
I called the shop. They also think cylinder which I now agree with. What do you mean by local help? Shops in the area I broke down? Is there a ‘trusted list’ somewhere?

 

"Local help" just means enlisting the TW community.

We're a fairly friendly bunch when we aren't arguing about which ball joints to get.

I've seen plenty of threads where people have gone out of their way (literally) to help a fellow Taco enthusiast. People often will even go out and pull you out of a ditch. Some guys have "build days" at their homes where people come by and all work on each other's trucks.

 

that's rad. So where should I look for LA folks/shops? My time/money graph is just *slightly* skewed towards going to a shop :/

 

LA Like Los Angeles, or LA like Louisiana?

Regional forums maybe. There are a bunch of so cal people around. Most of them are okay...

 

Welp. Two days later, works fine. Bizarre.

 

This reprieve will give you time to buy a new master cylinder "just in case," Or a rebuild kit, if you like fiddling with things. I had about 5 days of intermittent, but progressively worse clutch action until it basically became undrivable. If the problem really has gone away permanently, you could return the part for a refund or keep it as a spare for when the 18-year-old master cylinder does finally go. Mine lasted 20 years.