I broke it good now!!!

I was getting in the car and before I could even start the engine, Ibroke something. I pushed in the clutch and something snapped. I thought it was the cable itself at first because the pedal went to the floor so fast and so easy. The really confusing thing was that the pedal sprung back into position when I took my foot off it. I checked the cable and it appears as good as it did before. Its deffinately time to pull the engine now. I'm betting on the throw out bearing (probably the problem all along). Any other guesses?

Could be a broken cross shaft too; of course you'll see it as soon as you pull the engine.

a loop on the clutch cable for the shorter chassis came loose?

It happend to me before.My luck,I was driving at the time (7 miles away from home) and I had to go thru lights,stop signs,and one intersection.All that without changing gears.Thank god I made it.My car died on the driveway.

Let me ask this. Speaking of the loop on the cable. It doesn't appear loose, but there was some slack in the cable where it met the clutch lever. What kind of tention should there be between the clutch arm and the cable loop with the clutch engaged(foot off the pedal)? Is that the "pedal freeplay" the service manual is speaking of. And to take it one more step, how far should the lever move from the verticle at rest position before it disengages the clutch?

"how far should the lever move from the verticle at rest position before it disengages the clutch? "

It isn't usually measured at the clutch arm end, you measure the free play at the pedal end. .

"some slack in the cable where it met the clutch lever"

There should be no slack at all! The cable is always tight and under some tension against the clutch release lever arm, depending upon how much free play you've dialed into the pedal.

The free play is the clutch arm/throw out bearing moving inside the "bell housing" on it's way to the pressure plate. You feel the tension of the clutch fork return spring, THEN the pressure of the pressure plate itself when depressing the clutch pedal.

That was exactly what I was thinking when I got down there and saw it loose like that. Just the way it sits I was able to tighten it up some. Even with the cable nuts tightened down all the way to the full tight position the clutch arm still sits completely verticle with no real tention on it from the cable. By pushing the pedal completely to the floor, the clutch lever on the trans only moves from what I consider the 12 oclock position to about the 11. It might be sufficient, but the manual doesnt specify how far the lever should travel to release the clutch.

I was thinking of tightening everything up and see what I get before I take out the engine, but there are so many things going wrong in there that to do it the right way I really should start with a clean slate. I hate to admit it, but I'm a little intimidated at the thought of pulling the engine and trans out by myself.

I don't think you'll need to pull the transaxle to fix this, though.

That noise, sudden "snap", and clutch pedal movement might have been the clutch tube breaking loose inside the tunnel . . .

Or the cable slipping . . .
Or the arm that holds the throw out bearing breaking away from the shaft . . .
Or the bearing ring coming apart . . .
Or the pressire plate contact ring coming loose/apart . . .
Or the cable starnds breaking . . .
Or . . .

Might be nothing, might be simple, might be major, time to get busy and stop speculating.

Cable strands breaking, usually don't make a big noise but would cause what you're experiencing.
ed

"Cable strands breaking, usually don't make a big noise"

Not a "snap", but maybe a "snp" or a "sp" possibly? I betcha if you listen closely you'd, at least, hear an "s" . . .

OK, one fix on to another (or I fixed something that didn't need fixing). Driving the other day, I heard a sound coming from the back end (I thought that it was the rear brakes, so I changed and adjusted the shoes). The noise that I heard sounded like something was rubbing on the rotation (not constant, only when the wheel would get back to point 1) The sound was similar to running over reflectors in the middle of the street. Hopefully I am describing well enough to understand what I was hearing. Needless to say after I finished the breaks and went on a test run around the block I heard a CLUNK then the clutch stayed put on the floor as I was attempting to take it out of gear to listen at idle, but I had to drive the car back home in first gear and shut the engine down. The car is park, engine off and I can't get the car out of gear??? My first thought is that I snapped the clutch cable, but that shouldn't prevent me from taking it out of gear though once parked... Or would it?

I think it's pretty common for the "arms" that the throw out bearing rides on to break if they are original. It's not too difficult to replace them once the engine is out. Sounds like that could have been the "snap" you heard and I think the symptoms would be the same as you are having. Good luck.

Engine off, brake on you should be able to go thru the gears no trouble.
But, if you are on a slight incline the trans could be "loaded" a bit.
Rock the car and see if the shifter frees.

But the clutch pedaL going to the floor means...........
Trouble with;
1.Cable
2.infamous tube
3.throw out arm
4.bearing
5.pressure plate

Good luck.

The car is in the garage, and on a flat surface, but still can't take it out of first gear. I don't want to FORCE anything out of gear just yet. I tried rocking and still no go. Thanks in advance for suggestions.

If you head under the car and find the part on the gearbox which is pulled by the clutch cable (I forget it's proper name) give it a shove. If it pushes forward with no effort, it's likely the clutch cross shaft has snapped. To fix that, you'll need to pull the engine and gearbox (not as big a job as you may think)

If that's firm, it's more likely to be a cable problem.

Got it out of gear, without having to crawl under the car. Started the car in gear and then quickly hit the brakes and let the car stall. It came out without any force. Now it is on to troubleshooting... If anyone else had a similar incident, I'd love to hear what the end result was. I have to drop the engine next month to install the engine tins, so I suppose I will just have to wait and do it all at once.

Warning!!

Don't crank the car with a broken clutch fork or you may tear up the pressure plate with the lose parts.

You will have to pull the engine. But you CAN! replace the fork shaft with the tranny still in the car. Its a pain to get the lever arm off and back on with the spring that goes behind it But if you have swing axles Its the better way to go.

Check the transaxle mounts as well.