Good morning guys ive recently bought a 2007 1.3 ka for my daughter christmas 

Its a 1 owner with 13k on the clock!

Thats right the little old lady only drove it to church and asda once a week for 12 years!

It looks and drives like new and i wont say what i paid for it but believe me when i say she practically gave it away!

How ever there is 1 or 2 issues 

Firstly as a trendy 17 year old my daughter says "its not very cool" so ill be asking in a separate thread about wheels bumpers ect...

This thread is more about the gearbox!

It changes gear beautifully however every now and then it crunches into gear and occasionally "looses" gear completely! What i mean is it wont go in gear!

Ive found if i put it in neutral and pump the clutch it will slip into 3rd then every gear will work as its supposed to! 

Is this possibly just lack of use, or am i possibly looking at a new/reconditioned gear box?

Hi Gavin. Lol, that mileage sounds like my Mrs, who coincidentally had a Mk 1 Ka for 7 years.

Anyway, if I'm reading your post correctly, what you are saying is that the gearchange is normally fine, but occasionally won't go into gear. If you pump the clutch, it does.

It sounds to me more like a problem with the clutch hydraulics - air lock, fluid that has absorbed moisture and needs changing, master or slave cylinder, leak somewhere or combination of those. I'd be inclined to check those out first.

Yea thats about right

I guess that would make sence since I didnt realise it had a hydraulic clutch! i just assumed it had a clutch cable? And if thats the case its unlikely the fluid has ever been changed

What also comes to mind is the seller said something about the clutch pedal sometimes makes a funny noise. I forgot about it untill just now as ive yet to hear it but at the time just assumed it would just been a squeaky spring or something similar 

So ive been driving it on and off for a couple of weeks now, and theres deffinatly something amiss with the clutch.

When fully depressed you can here a very audible rattle that sounds a lot like a exhaust heat shield (no its not a heat shield lol)

Ive also found when it wont go into gear if i give the accelerator a little tap it then slots into gear easily 

Ive been told it could be a release bearing! Does that sound plausable?

Is it a big job? Ie home diy!

I have more experience with fiesta than ka but think what I am saying is right. Clutch master cylinder is cheap plastic thing , cheap in cost and cheap in how long you think it would last from appearance. On my sisters fiesta with same style of master cylinder it recently became iffy in that sometimes it worked fine and other times it did not fully disengage clutch. Changed master cylinder and is fine now. Slave cylinder and release bearing are one combined unit inside the bell housing. So needs gearbox removal to get there.  Fluid reservoir shared with brakes. Clutch fluid feed is higher up from brake fluid feed so clutch leak won’t cause brake failure, but slow brake leak could leave clutch with insufficient fluid before you realise there is a slow brake leak. First I would check fluid level and maybe bleed it. Clutch bleed screw on top of bellhousing . Screw is plastic, turn 90 degrees to open/close. It’s not like brake bleed screws where you do them up until tight.so don’t break it. As I say this is based on my experience with fiestas, I think your ka is same.  I know none of that helps with the rattle

So just an update 

I managed to get a new old stock genuine ford clutch kit very cheep, my thinking was the slave cylinder had gone but since I was going in there ill put a new clutch in too!

Stripped the gearbox down and found that the clutch pressure plate had completely detached from the clutch cover! How it was still available to drive still baffles me lol

Anyway lucky I bought a full kit so i changed it and fitted the slave cylinder since I was there and had a new one!

Built everything back up without any issues (that was probably my first warning something wasnt right?)

Completed the job put the wheels back on went to connect the hydraulic lines only to find the union dosent fit!

The female fitting on the new slave cylinder was smaller than the male fitting on the pipe! Oh s###! So i spent the next 3 hours on Google trying to find and adaptor to make the 2 ends fit together. Guess what! Nobody makes one!

so the next day I had no choice but to bite the bullet and strip the whole gearbox down again to put the old slave cylinder back in!

So the moral of the story is even if the box says the numbers are right, still check the part numbers on the actual part not just on the box, cos some prick might have swapped them at some point!

Anyway the car now swaps gears beautifully and sounds and runs like brand new again! And concidering its only a 1.3 its a pokey little thing giving my 3.0 diesel navara truck a run for its money!

I have seen other people report the same problem with the pipe join size. Some other people have solved this by replacing the pipe that runs from master cylinder to slave cylinder because they can't face taking the gearbox off again (not suprisingly). I know you have fixed yours now but someone with similar problem may read this in the future. 

I was wondering this but i couldn't find a definite answer as to wether the updated pipe would fit the existing master cylinder and being weekend I didn't wont to start messing around trying to find the right (or wrong ) pipe! so for the sake of a few hours work i just refitted parts I already had and that i know fit!

But indeed for future readers check fitment before committing several hours hard work! Lol