I just spent the last two weeks replacing the exhaust system, and repairing and replacing electrical componants on the top of the engine of a 1992 Honda Accord Wagon, with a 5-speed stick, and a 112,000 highway miles on the car. I replaced the oil, filters, belts, etc. and installed a new battery and filled the empty gas tank.

It started right up last night, and I drove it out to the end of my driveway so that I could drive it down to the DMV today. I did note that the gear shift, at that time, was acting "funny", and the clutch petal seemed "soft", but the car has been sitting for over two years so I figured that it was stiff from sitting for so long.

Today, it started right up again, but the clutch petal is down on the floorboard and won't release. The gearshift shifts (moves around), but nothing I do makes that clutch petal come back up. I checked the clutch linkage but it looks alright.

Anyone have this happen to them? Any ideas out there, short of pulling the clutch?

It's a hydraulic clutch, it's leaking, and you lost all the fluid while it was sitting unused. Fill the resevoir (with brake fluid), and lift and pump the pedal like crazy, it may come back. If not, there is a massive leak, and you'll have to find it. Watch and see if the fluid pumps out somewhere when you pump the pedal. They usually fail at the slave cylinder down near the clutch.

I did check all of the fluid levels, and checked for leaks. That is why I ended up replacing all of the belts and hoses. Had a couple of hoses that looked like they might suddenly leak, and a belt that looked like it might break.

I found no leaks in any of the fittings, lines or rubber hoses for the clutch, and the tank for the clutch is full. I did pull the clutch pedal up from the floorboard, and then pumped it up and down quite a few times. No change in the fluid level, and the clutch pedal, now, does return to the "up" position, but the pressure on the pedal is very weak.

Might be some crap in the lines, or a weak return spring. I'll check that out tomorrow.

Still sounds like you have air in the system. Did you try bleeding it? There's a bleeder at the slave cylinder. Like I said, usually they leak from down there. As fluid drips out, air goes in. Even a small amount of fluid that might go unnoticed over a long time will be displaced by enough air to make the pedal fail. If the air is trapped in the slave, it may not all work itself out to the line and get expelled by pumping the cylinder, you may have to open the bleeder, if you didn't already. What you've described so far is dead typical of air in the slave cylinder.

Even when a cylinder like that leaks so little that the leakage hasn't even made it past the dust seal and shown itself externally, the cylinder can be full of air and disable the whole system...if you were using the car every day you wouldn't notice it at that point, because each time you used it, you'd be forcing that tiny amount of air to purge from the cylinder, before it accumulated enough to mess with clutch operation. But let it sit and build several days worth of air intrusion, and you've got exactly what you describe, pedal on the floor, no clutch activation.

I don't think there is really a return spring on the pedal, the spring you feel is the pressure plate fingers pushing back against it. Sometimes they will get weak or broken, but usually not all of a sudden from sitting like that....I've had many, MANY customers with Hondas come through my shop with a pedal laying on the floor like that. They all come back up and work fine after the hydraulic issue is sorted out. There's a chance your master end might be failing, just like with brake master cylinders it'll give you a dead pedal and no load end activation, but brake pedals DO have a return spring, or they would lay on the floor like that also when the hydros failed....

There's no spring on the pedal. You have either a bad master (near the pedal)or a bad slave (at the clutch arm). If its the slave cylinder, I think autozone has a rebuild kit, which is very simply a new seal and dust boot for about $12. However, this thing is major PITA to bleed because there is not much back pressure. Its almost impossible without 2 people, or a vacuum bleeder.