car wont shift into first, hard shift with other gears

[phreaknature]

HELP!! I've been researching this for the past hour and I'm finding mixed answers to incomplete questions.

Here's the full rundown.

New master cylindar and slave cylindar almost a year old. Yesterday the car drove and shifted fine, though first gear will sometimes give me trouble and i have to press on the clutch more than once to have it shift into first all the way. Today when I left the mall (meaning it drove fine on the way there) I couldn't get the damn thing into first even with the method I usually use. I had to slam it into first. Driving back home scared the crap out of me because it became harder to shift into any gear, and when I was about 4 blocks from my apartment, I had to shift from neutral to 2nd gear, totally skipping first cause when I tried to go into first, all I got was major resistance and the sound like my gears were grinding. Clutch was placed ALL the way down when I was trying for first, and that was my result. Pure resistance and the grinding of gears sound. From the four blocks to my house, I had trouble shifting up AND down, but I was lucky enough to park it at my place. When the car is off, I can shift to first easily. On, can't do it at all. Had my friend press the clutch while i was taking a peek underneath and saw the slave move as its supposed to. Checked the master and found that my fluid had gone black. Getting the car into reverse was difficult when the car was on, as I had to slam that too and actually heard it grind for a sec.

Okay so now that I've told you EVERYTHING about my problems, what can you guys conclude as to the problem of my 1990 240sx hatch? Is my first step to bleed the clutch? Or do i skip that because it won't do a thing and focus on getting a new pressure place and to bearing?

this is my DD guys and beside my gf, who's car is out of commision as well, i don't have anyone else here in san jose to ask for help!

[OM3GA]

Can you put it in second gear and then blip the throttle a bit (rev it up) and as soon as you hit the gas throw the shifter forward from second gear to first gear? And does it feel somewhat easy to go in?

[blacksrjdm]

Do you still have a clutch damper on the car? Is it only first or is reverse giving you a problem too?

[phreaknature]

Can you put it in second gear and then blip the throttle a bit (rev it up) and as soon as you hit the gas throw the shifter forward from second gear to first gear? And does it feel somewhat easy to go in?

tried that about four times today after i saw your post, doesn't go in. first is totally blockin me from shifting into it at all when the car is ON. i really don't want to drive it around, come to a stop and shut off the car, throw it in first, and restart the car... waay too ghetto

Do you still have a clutch damper on the car? Is it only first or is reverse giving you a problem too?

don't know what a damper is threw it in reverse yesterday and noticed it was hard to do that. also got a lil bit of that grinding noise as well. going into all of the other gears was starting to get difficult as well. almost as if something was stoppin the shifter from reachin any of the gears i select.

[blacksrjdm]

tried that about four times today after i saw your post, doesn't go in. first is totally blockin me from shifting into it at all when the car is ON. i really don't want to drive it around, come to a stop and shut off the car, throw it in first, and restart the car... waay too ghetto

don't know what a damper is threw it in reverse yesterday and noticed it was hard to do that. also got a lil bit of that grinding noise as well. going into all of the other gears was starting to get difficult as well. almost as if something was stoppin the shifter from reachin any of the gears i select.

K, sounds like air in the system. U have to bleed the system very well. If you have a clutch damper, which is inline between the master and slave cylinders, and remove it. Then rebleed, you will find it is alot easier. There are a few threads about removing the clutch damper. Search a bit, you'll find that, and you'll find that bleeding is now a dream.