Oldblue

Hydraulic pressure from the master cylinder to the slave cylinder would disengage the clutch.
So, it appears that your slave cylinder is not working correctly

firemangeorge

I am more inclined to think the throw out bearing is sticking (binding) on the output shaft.
Or, you may have a weak/failing clutch pressure plate.

Slow08SS

Thanks fellas, sounds like the transmission needs to come out regardless. It’s so strange to me how it was driving fine then multiple things fail all at once haha

Oldblue

I was also thinking, binding shifter cables, for the hard to shift to neutral properly

Slow08SS

That’s certainly a possibility, it’s always a bit hard to shift I’ve adjusted the cables a lot and never have got it to shift all that smoothly. What it did was it had so much pressure holding the shifter in first I don’t think I could have forced it out if I wanted to. I shut the car off and got it into neutral but when I tried to start it it was actually still in first gear despite the shifter being in neutral. After I shut it off it didn’t have any pressure on the shifter and shifted fine. I suspect all that Kuching forward dislodged whatever was binding

RJ_RS_SS_350

How can the slave cause it to still be in gear, with the shifter in neutral? I would look elsewhere for the problem.

Oldblue

That’s most likely the shifter cables binding.

Slow08SS

I managed to get the pedal assembly out, it looks like the arm is bent to the left quite a bit. It’s not noticeable when the pedal is in its normal position but when depressed it is fairly obvious, I’m going to attempt to bend it back in shape and I’m hoping that will fix the pivoting spring issue

RJ_RS_SS_350

Take another look, comparing your pics to mine. It's supposed to be to the left. Mine looks more to the left than yours.

Slow08SS

Yes my pedal definitely seems to be bent to the right when looking at your pictures. The little arm that holds the center bushing is way to the left though, maybe it’s supposed to be that way but it certainly looks excessive to me. I don’t have a vice here but in a bit I’m going to go to my shop and see if I can get this thing working, if not I found a manual HHR in a pull-a-part about 2 hours away, if I have to I’ll go pull that and replace the stupid thing haha