So on Saturday as I was pulling into traffic, I went to shift into 2nd and when I pushed the clutch it, it went spongy and all I could do was grind gears. At first I thought something hydraulic blew out, so I pulled over and checked the slave cylinder, it was fine, so I thought my new master cylinder blew. After taking it out, getting it warrantied out, and going through all the work of bleeding everything, come to find out it wasn't the problem. The clutch fork would move, but the clutch wouldn't disengage. So Sunday night I decided to play with it to see if I could get it to work, and after adjusting the pin all the way I got the clutch to work once, then something jammed, and the clutch was continuously disengaged and the car wouldn't move. I got pissed off and just floored it, the car started to move, then there was a clunk, some rattling, and the car quit moving. I think what happened was the throw out bearing fell off the fork, then jammed into the pressure plate, then I burnt the clutch down and the disk blew. So I've been without a car for a couple days now, but it's all good, I have a new transmission, clutch, and flywheel from a ZX2 waiting to go in. And I'm hitting up the junk yard this weekend to check out the new ZX2 they just got in last week and see if it has a good motor, if so I might be doing a complete motor swap form my 1.9 SOHC with 88hp to a 2.0 DOHC with 150hp. Here's the pile of clutch I found after all hell broke loose, it was all on top of the clutch fork. I also sold my rims and put stock steelies on because the 16"s were bald and I didn't want to buy new tires for them. Last pic I took with the 16"s on. These are the rims I was going to get, but they'll have to wait till I get the car back on the road. And the steelies. Oh and if anybody wondered how I get such a low car on ramps, this is how. I also repainted the front bumper, it looks so much better now! And I got a wink mirror. I was a little disappointed in it, it jiggled a little going down the road. So I got a little friend to help hold it steady! My friend won it out of a claw machine at Denny's one night and she gave it to me. It's like a neck pillow with eyes. lol So anyways, that's where I am now. One of these days I'll start a work log so I can keep track of everything.
i was always curious if a zx2 clip would fit on a wagon. good luck with the swap. the hp difference should be worth it. not to mention there is a ton of bolt-on hardware for the zetec dohc. not hard to get that motor to 200hp. the local hot rod builder/garage had a guy come in that had a squirrel of chipmunk crawl into the bell housing of his f150. well, he had to have the clutch rebuilt...and the critter faired much worse.
Wow that's really neat! I've never seen a ZX2 clip on the wagon before. Very creative! At this point, could the Escort be called an ESCortALADE? Especially with those rims! Great job!
Had that happen to my old '93 escort wagon at the 1st stop to my route.. that route had about 8 stops and was 300 miles LOL Mine jerked hard once and the clutch went soft and stopped working.. when I got it apart it was the pressure plate fingers had collapsed But I mastered the starting in 1st gear and clutchless shifting that night in stop and go city and toll booth traffic.. made it back and was only 15 minutes later getting back too
