Hi, my sister has been complaining about her tracker not shifting and going into gear properly. I looked briefly at it today and noticed this. It is a 5 speed standard transmission. When I put it into gear it was kinda surging or loping a bit. It was kinda hard to get out of gear and when i went to go to first I couldn't. I had to shut it off and start it in gear (with clutch depressed of course). The other gears were very stiff to get into as well. A mechanic said the clutch, pressure plate, etc were all bad. I disagree cause the clutch doesn't slip. I can hear a growling sound too. I am thinking it could be a throwout bearing? Anybody shed light onto this?

Hello,

As far as the noise, with the clutch peddle out and you have noise it is the input shaft bearing. With the peddle pressed it is the throwout bearing, that is when it is spinning. Getting into gear hard and what you described sounds like the slave cylinder. Whether it is low on fluid or leaking down. It also could be a bad master cylinder for the slave cylinder, where you put the fluid in at. I would check those before I would do the clutch thing. I don't think it sounds like the clutch either.