Yet another problem! Won't go into 5th gear or reverse

[tiksie]

As title states, car will no longer go into 5th gear or reverse.

Previous owner rebuilt the gearbox (except for 5th gear).

5th was always hard to get into (not extremely hard, but harder then all the other gears.)

Reverse was always normal.

Was driving yesterday and all of a sudden my shifter got stuck which seemed like it was stuck between 5th and neutral. I stopped and looked at the linkages on the gearbox to see if they slipped off but all is fine.

Got back into the car and just used brute force while pushing and pulling on the selector and now it works fine again. It was going into 1st and 2nd only for a bit then wiggled it around in neutral again and now I got 1-2-3-4 working perfectly fine.

Another thing is that 4th used to vibrate on decelleration and SOMETIMES popped out of gear, but now it feels even better than before! (SO WEIRD).

The only thing is that I can't get into 5th or reverse.

Whilst in neutral I can push the shifter left but it feels as if pushing it right is much stiffer than left, alas, not even able to slot it into 5th or reverse. Just feels like its blocked by something.

I'm guessing it's a shifter/linkage issue but not exactly sure on where to start troubleshooting.

Shifter cables from firewall to gearbox looks fine.

Took the boot off the shifter and moved the shifter side to side and it looks a bit loose (unless that's what it's meant to look like ?).

Any help would be appreciated. Pictures would be awesome!

Thanks guys

[Fizturbo]

Sounds like out of the two cables the shifter cable is playin up,diconnect the ends and see if it's free.

Edited May 4, 2013 by Fizturbo

[Taggy]

The starlets gear linkage is really basic, literally two cables which run from the gearstick, my advice would be to open the bonnet, remove the two R clips holding on two washers which attach your linkage cables to the box and also remove the U shape clips which hold the cables in pllace. You will need a set of good pliers to wedge them off.

Then get someone to go through the gears in the car with it all discnnected, check the cables are moving backwards and forwards when moved with the stick, check both of them. Lube up if needed or replace if they are stiff or jerky.

Also worth to see if you can move the selectors they attach to by hand, give them a wiggle around in case they have some how jammed.

Also worth checking your box has oil in it undo the realy big bolt on the front of the gearbox when you look at the front of it facing your bumper, the oil should meet this level when full, so pour in some from the filler bolt on top of the gearbox until it dribbles out.

If your still having selector problems, check your gearstick selector mechanisim is pushing and pulling the cables correctly.

after that your out of options, get a new box they are less than £100

[tiksie]

Thanks for that mate, will do a run down as soon as I can !