I had long suspected that the clutch disk on my '88 was sticking on the
input shaft.
Symptoms: starting engine cold, in gear clutch pedal down, I'd hear a
"thud" and the bus would lurch forward a bit. I'm certain this was the
clutch disk releasing from pressure plate. For a while it shifted fine but
eventually it was tough to get bus in 1st at a stop light and it would
"stick" in gear shifting from gear to gear. I didn't know which parts were
getting hurt when doing this but as per Pauls' comment, all I could see was
something on each syncro getting damaged each time I pulled it out of gear.
Bleeding clutch didn't help. What I did: slide transaxle away from the
engine, use inspection mirror to help in applying a little lube to very end
of input shaft splines. There was enough room to check that throw out
bearing was properly secured, spin it a little to see how worn it was
(careful; don't knock it loose!) and, I could do a quick inspection of the
clutch operating shaft arms. I left CV's attached. A piece of thick steel
between support blocks and transaxle helped allow transaxle to slide.
Something like a piece of wood with counter top laminate might allow same?
A bottle jack was handy to tweak engine height at end nearest transaxle
when pushing the transaxle back on.
There was also enough room to *just* see the end of the input shaft where
it rides in pilot bearing. In my case, it was a bit shiny. In hindsight I
wish I'd tried to apply a ***small*** amount of grease to that part of
input shaft. Regardless, though I haven't put a lot of highway miles on it
yet, it shifts much better and no "thud" when starting in gear, engine cold.

Neil.

On Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 9:16 AM, paul guard <gears@prodigy.net> wrote:

It's extremely rare that a "problem disengaging 1st gear" would be
> internal.  These symptoms sound like clutch release issue.

--
Neil n

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