No 5th or Reverse, 97 gt. Manual tranny issues Options

[silvercap86]

Hi, I was driving from Arizona to Kentucky and lost 5th gear and reverse when I hit Oklahoma. So I had to drive the rest of the way in 4th lol! When trying to shift into either gear, it feels as if there was never a gear even there feels like I am just dropping it into neutral. I pulled the console and everything is moving properly from there. Manual 2.2 by the way. I then pulled my air intake to take a look at my shift cables to see if one of the plastic fittings had broken, but those seem to function properly also.

Any ideas?

[lilmancelica94]

5th and reverse are together on the same shaft. There are a series of balls, springs, detents, and levers responsible for everything working. I'd imagine it's something like this responsible since it's both 5th and reverse. I wouldn't buy a car like this unless I was prepared to repair or replace the transmission. Yes it could be something simple like a cable or linkage, but I really wouldn't hold my breath on that. Odds are it's something like a ball and spring that sit on the detent, these are accessed from the outside of the transmission and someone trying to drain the transmission without knowing what they're looking for may accidentally remove one of these instead of the drain and fill plug. Which they're drastically different in size, but you'd be surprised.

Thanks for the info Box. Sounds like either the transmission would most likely need to be rebuilt or replaced. Of course the person selling the car I'm looking at had the clutch replaced recently, which leads me to believe that the shop that did it possibly screwed something up. Would it be better to have the trans rebuilt or just replace it?