Car: 05 ZR
Miles: ~70,000

Background: Long story short, had issues with clutch pedal sticking 1/2-way down for last 15,000 miles or so. Took it to the dealer and they said unless something was broken they wouldn't "fix" it under warrant. Now that I'm out of warranty, the following happened:

"I was in a drive-through and when I went to shift into gear and pull away from the window my shifter had a hard time getting into first & all subsequent gears. Now it just refuses to let me shift into any gear. Initially after reading the forums I though it was a pressure issue in my hydraulic system, so I swapped out my master/slave cylinders and bled the system out again with Nissan Heavy Duty Brake Fluid. Now the clutch feels great.........but the Z still wont allow me to shift into any of the gears".

Question: After looking through the forums & consulting a family mechanic (mostly BMW background) I'm pretty sure its something to do with the clutch assembly inside the bell-housing. My question is, anyone dropped their tranny before and replaced clutch/fork/etc? Is it doable in a 1-car garage with your typical tool-set/jack/stands/etc and 1-2 people helping in a weekend or is it something I should just bite the bullet on and let a shop take care of? I've done my fair share of under the hood work, so I'm all for doing it myself if possible. I don't have a trusted mechanic in the area so I'm hesitant to hand something over like this that could be anything from a quick $10-$15 replacement part swap to a $1,000+ fix.

Thanks in advance for the insight,

Mike

 

Late to the party here but yes you can do it with your constraints - I've yanked Z transmissions without power tools and on jack stands (obviously air tools and a lift are a big asset/time saver though). The trans weighs about 125lbs though so be aware of that.

Your problem definitely sounds like a clutch issue to me.