God google has been no help so far and I'm absolutely stumped please someone help. I own a 2001 camaro base hatchback modle all stock except for a cold air intake. A few weeks ago I took off from a red light as I hit 4k rpm in first gear I was shifting into second. My car lurched and I wasn't able to get the shifter into second, I slowed to a roll stopped ans realized I couldn't shift into any gears and my clutch peddle when pushed all the way down only came back up about 25% the rest of the way I have to manually pull it up. I CAN shift gear while the engine is not running but once it's on I'm locked out from all gears. Along with this since I got the car both 5th and reverse grind as I'm trying to push the shifter into the gears. The sounds specifically comes from the shift *** area and I can feel the gears fighting me if I try to put my car into reverse or fifth. I'm still on a lean for this car and I have almost 3k left to pay off I really want to get it running and use it if I'm going to be paying for it. I would get it inspected from a shop but if I towe it out of my apartment complex to a shop there going to be no way to get it back in. I need to either find out how to fix the dam thing or a rough estimate on how much it'll cost to just get the thing to go into gear and stop the clutch from not coming all the way back up. Please help.

 

Sounds like a collapsed pressure plate in your clutch,you'll have to pull the trans out to replace it if that's the case.
Have you checked the clutch master cylinder to see if it has fluid or looked under the car to see if the slave is leaking?
If the slave is bad you'll still have to pull the trans but is a lot less expensive part,that said if I pull a trans I'm doing a new clutch while it's apart.
First thing I'd do is check the master and bleed the system if you have to add fluid.

 

I agree with Y2K, it sounds like a pressure plate failure. You should check the clutch fluid level. With the V6 you have to pull trans to replace the hydraulic slave cylinder. Since the trans is coming out either way I would plan on replacing the entire hydraulic system and the clutch. Its really easy to go the cheap route and get a china made clutch. There are tons of reviews out there from people that got less then a thousand miles and way more that did not get 25% of the miles of their stock clutch. You did not mention how many miles you have on the clutch but age alone would dictate the hydraulic system replacement.
Do you have a friends that do car stuff? Doing a clutch is not difficult but you need the right tools to safely get the car in the air and some hand tools including basic hand tools and a torque wrench and a torque angle gage. A clutch in a camaro was the first major repair I ever did, I was 15 at the time, but I had my father to help me and I still had to do the job twice cause I got the throw out bearing in wrong. That was way before youtube, You should be able to find a lot of how to videos.

 

It currently has 145,845 miles. So I know for a fact it's not leaking I was able to bleed it refill and bleed again and still not able to shift while engine on, I got some pressure back in the clutch but it still won't come back all the way up when pressed to the floor. Still about 25% back up but I have some more pressure In it. Issues is I'm out in kc moved from Colorado, I don't know anyone yet who can help with this kind of job

 

Sounds like that pressure plate has collapsed,sorry to say but it will have to come apart.

 

Should I get a new clutch kit or just replace the pressure plate? If I have to take our the transmission anyways how much should I replace?

 

Replace it all,you can used the flywheel again if at can be turned but it will have to be checked.
You don't want to do it twice,new clutch plates slave cylinder and throwout bearing, new flywheel and pressure plate bolts (ARP suggested) and properly torqued.
Do it right once and you'll probably never have to do it again.

 

You should get the stock bolts if you can. These are strech to yield bolt from GM. I had to get mine from the dealer, that was 12 years ago and they wher like $18. These bolts are designed to not be reused. If ARP makes a bolt for this exact application I am sure it will be fine. Just don't buy a generic bolt. The bolts are very short and they need to strech as the flywheel get hot. A strech bolt becomes like a spring. once it streches. It will always spring back. Even the strongest bolt can be over streched and loosen over time.

Your slave clylinder and and release bearing are an all in one part. Makes sure you you buy a decent one. Replacing that is the same work as replacing the clutch. If finaces force a china made clutch, baby it until you can get a decent one. When I did mine I got a remanufacture fly wheel, because of how the release bearing is design there is very little materail that can be removed for the fly wheel. Many times the fly wheel requires spray welding and regrind. Most local shops don;t do that. They can try to clean it and grind it to the min size and see if it can clean up. In theory you could shim the flywheel forward but I do not think GM recommends that due to balance and heat transfer.

As stated above it stll sounds like a pressure plate but it is possible for a hydralic system to not work and not leak to the outside. The only real way to check whats going on would be a borescope. You can get them pretty cheap these days that plug right into your phone.