96 escort MT. will not shift into gear while running and has really soft pedal. what might be the problem?

Question

was out teaching the wife how to drive the car and stopped a stop sign and she went to put in in 1st and it would not go. we rolled the car for a bit in N and i got the tranny in 1st and got the car home with hard shifts through all gears. Dry shifting all gears are fine and shift with no problem. Crank the car and it will not go into any gear. before today the pedal had some stifness to it but now goes to the floor with no force required. Clutch master cylinder is full. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

sounds like you need a pressure plate  

Answer 2

The slave cylinder on the transmission is bad, it will need to be replaced, then you will need to bleed the air out of the system. I got my info from my husband who is a transmission guy. He says you should be able to do it yourself with a manual, he suggests you use a Haynes manual. He's not sure if the slave cylinder is on the outside of the trans or is inside with the through-out bearing. Hope this is some help to you.