I pulled over at the shops on the way home and after jumping back in the car I was driving up a fairly steep hill.

I changed from 3rd to 4th at 3k and the usually very notch feel was completely gone it's just slid straight down. Released the clutch and no engagement just free revving.

Changed down to second and still nothing, luckily 1st engaged and I made it over the hill. Tested all the gears and I could only get 1st, 3rd and 5th. Luckily I was only a couple of hundred metres from home.

I experimented a little more once I got home and found I could get 2nd and 4th to engage if I pulled down hard but all the feel on those gears is gone. Reverse usually clunks going in which has stopped but it still engages.

What do you guys think? I'll have look tomorrow when I have some light to work with and I have no working knowledge of the transmission yet so it's time to learn haha.

I'm hoping it's something with the shifter linkages and not the box itself? Car is running an e153 with mechanical LSD and was recently reconditioned. A B&M short shifter has been installed too. Makes shifting very notchy and it wouldn't surprise me if it's added extra stress to the system.

Any advice is appreciated :)

Hey Steve

Definitely get rid of the short shifter. my car performs much better without!

Check on the gearbox the brackets that hold the linkages in place. its possible that one of the C Clips came loose and the cable has popped out of the bracket. i have spare C Clips if needed

Also check the bushings and connections on the actually gearbox itself

If you find it is a problem with the box, I have an entire dismantled Turbo box at home if you need some parts

Cheers

Awesome I'll start there tomorrow! Fingers crossed it just a c clip.

I'll definitely be pulling out the B&M. Which short shifter did you have? I have a TRD which is meant to be much smoother or I can go the stock unit from my wrecked 2

It will either be a c clip for one of the shifter cables, or the shifter cable itself. It shouldnt be the bushing in the end of the selector at the gearbox end, as you would have issues with all the gears.

Although is it possible for the bushing to have degraded towards one side? ( hmmm I don't know) If you can't shift into second or fourth it sounds like the linkages aren't pushing the main crank lever on the input shaft far enough? But only in one direction. From memory the forwards and backwards action on the shifter in cabin translate into the left and right rotation on the lever shaft.

Try putting the shifter in second or fourth in the cabin, then with the car safely on jackstands get under and see if you can physically push the crank arm on the lever shaft the rest of the way into gear, if it clunks into place, then the short shifter may not be giving you enough throw to get the crank to rotate enough and get into gear. If you are able to select the gears with the lever shaft (rotate left and right and push and pull it in and out to get into the gears) then your transmission is probably fine.

Prob be a good time to get some solid brass bushings for the cables and get that stock shifter back in!

Good luck! Hopefully it's nothing more serious.

Thanks for all the help guys, it was a missing c clip that was causing the problem! I just pulled off the intake pipe and replaced it from the top.
 
In the process I found I have brass cable bushings installed along with aluminum shifter base bushings too! All in all I'm just glad I was only without the car for a day and not any longer :)

Good to hear
 
Hehe, bonus! Like finding treasure under there