What does this sound like to you?

[excelguru]

Symptoms

I coast to a stop at a red light in 2nd gear with the clutch pedal fully depressed. While stopped at the red, I pop it into neutral with the intention of proceeding to 1st gear. It then becomes impossible to put it into 1st. Okay... so I try 2nd. Nope. Try 3rd? Nope. Panic sets in. Try 1st again. Hell, let's try reverse... (grinding sound)... nope. Bear in mind that the clutch pedal is fully engaged this whole time (and reverse still grinds!??). After several seconds of green light staring me in the face and eye daggers hitting me in the back of the head, I finally manage to grab 2nd. (whew!)

While traveling (especially at slower speeds) shifting can become impossible. It gets into neutral and just stays there, refusing to pop into any gear.

Under light acceleration (when the pipes aren't kicking out 97 decibels), I can just barely hear a slight rattling sound from... the clutch area???

Once, when coasting to a stop with the clutch depressed and 2nd gear engaged, the car sputtered and struggled, as if the clutch were still engaged.

Engine RPM's continue to match car speed, so I don't believe the clutch is slipping (quite the opposite seems to be happening).

Diagnosis

Does it sound like a simple adjustment to the clutch slave cylinder is required? Or is this a more serious issue? This happened last Wednesday, and I haven't had time to touch the car since (or I would've tried the slave adjustment by now). Just thought I would run it by you guys before I started crawling under the car (when I find time later this decade).