My story begins on a Friday night. I had been planning on going out for dinner and hopped into my trusty 97 Sidekick 4 door 5 speed to take me there. Put the clutch pedal down and turned the key to start. Nothing. The battery wasn't dead, all the beepers and lights and everything was working. Since my driveway is a hill I rolled down it and popped the clutch to start it, just to make sure it wasn't something else, because I was pretty sure it was the clutch start switch. Sure enough, it started no problem so I drove back up the hill.
Next morning I found the push button under the dash to start it without depressing the clutch pedal. Push it in, turn the key, bingo. It starts. So, my next course of action is to adjust the clutch start switch. Ok, piece of cake, it starts again without pushing the button. Next, I take it for a test drive and this is where things get weird. It starts shifting like GARBAGE.
Due to an injury I was not able to do anything about it until tonight (monday). This morning when I drove to work, I needed to drive clutch-less (power shifting) because pushing the pedal down did nothing. When I got home, I adjusted my clutch cable tension. It was REALLY loose, but I figured this might just be because of some cable stretch since I just got this clutch cable this summer. After adjusting the cable tension, I took it for a test run around the block and it shifted nicely. So, to finish off the evening's work, it would make sense to re-adjust the clutch start switch since it still wasn't engaging.
After doing this, I took it for another test run and barely got it into Reverse. It was not possible to get it into first. The clutch pedal felt really light. I got my dad to watch the lever under the vehicle as I depressed the clutch pedal and he said it was moving alot, so it sounds normal.

Looking in my Haynes manual, the only thing I can think of that would cause such a weird, sudden loss of clutch operation is the pinch bolt on the cable lever under the vehicle coming loose so the lever isn't anchored properly and it will jump from spline to spline on its shaft, causing the clutch to work 1 minute and next minute it's useless.

Has anybody had any similar experiences? What did you do to fix it? Thx

There is the arm on the side of the tranny and an arm on the end of the clutch pedal shaft, that both need to be indexed correctly (they have "dots" on each part that is to be lined up with the "dot" on the other part).  And make sure the pinch bolts are tightened properly.
Then make sure the clutch pedal height is set correctly (slightly above the brake pedal height).
Then adjust the cable, so the pedal freeplay and the clutch engagement from the floor is correct.

What kind of cable did you buy?  Factory or other?  If it isn't a factory cable, it could be the cable causing the problem.  I just got through fixing a clutch problem for a guy (he had a new clutch and clutch cable put on and it still would not work correctly).  Ended up being the "other" clutch cable....put a new factory cable on and everything worked great.

I had this problem like this in my 96 tracker 2 door.

The weld that conects the clutch peddle to the shaft it needs to turn broke loose.  First sign was that I couldn't get it started.  Then when I did it shifted teriblbe.

I put a new weld on the peddle and all is well. 

Looked at it again tonight. The arm/lever under the vehicle is fine. I followed your advice on the snapped welds and sat upside down in the driver's seat and took a good, long look under the dash with a proper work light. Lo and behold, I discovered the problem:



I'll either get a new one or have it welded or brazed back together.

That's exactly what happen to mine.  Glad I could help.

If i was you buy a pedal, you can find them in a junk yard for cheap or a new one is around 100$, trust me i have the same problem we weld it and it doesn't last, when to 3 pedal before i fix it....and BTW check your cable and the tranny lever if they work freely (not stick) me it was because the cable was stiff and it snap the weld

Ok I got it welded up at work today and reinstalled it, it's shifting fine with a capital "F" now!

I had the same problem on my 97 4dr. I replaced both the master and slave cylinder before discovering it.

1997 4dr. Sidekick Sport 1.8L DOHC
2" coil spacers- I make and sell 1.5" and 2" on e-bay.  Look under seller: hoepkers
3" Masterkit1 body lift
Custom strut spacers
31/11.50/16 Super Swamper LTB's w/1.5" wheel spacers
Custom cold air intake
2" exhaust w/cherry bomb and 16"x3" stainless tip

I have a 97 too...i see that you have a custom air intake..do you have any picture of it to share with us!!

I can't resize pics small enough to post on here. It is basicly a cone K+N style filter added to the intake tube. I just used aluminum tubing and 2 hose clamps to join them. The stock air box is removed also. I do not know if yours is the 1.8L, but it is totally different from the 1.6.