I know this is a truck forum, but someone still might be able to help me with this on here.

Im looking into a 1993 ford tempo for my girlfriend. It has a 2.3L 5 speed.

The owner thinks its the clutch, but Im not so sure. I tried putting it in every gear and slowly releasing the clutch pedal, but nothing happened....

From my own experience, if the clutch it self is bad, it would grind or be hard to take in and out of gear...its like shifting the tranny if the engine were off..

The car shifts fine, but theres just no output at all. I dont want to buy the car hoping its just the clutch to find out something else has gone wrong in the tranny.

Engine runs smooth, no knocks bangs or clicks, and you can see the shift likage moving on top of the tranny when someone tries to shift (its not hydraulic)

Any help?

 

Could be that the splined hub on the clutch friction plate has sheared, would give what you have. Also clutch so worn that no drive at all. Also sheared transmission input shaft.
Really only way to tell is to drop the trans.
I would have thought worst case a JY trans and new clutch kit but just a guess.

 

Start it up and try to put it into gear without touching the clutch pedal. Even with a blown clutch it should grind or resist going into gear. If it doesn't, I'd expect something to be quite wrong with the transmission.

Also, I would not buy my girlfriend an ancient Ford Tempo if I actually liked her and wanted to keep her around.

 

ok thanks, but that friction plate comes with the new clutch kit so I should be ok right? As long as the tranny itself wont need to be replaced....The car only has about 87000 miles on it supposedly

 

Ok ill try that, and its her first car, she understands its not exactly a show car, lol She is actually greatful that I might buy her some POS car, that I get to fix everytime it breaks...