This might or might not be the cause of your problem, but it's worth a quick check...
One week ago, I was suddenly unable to engage second, fourth and sixth gears. This was not a great experience as it happened whilst I was out on a drive in the peak district with Nick! Immediate thoughts of £££ gearbox rebuilds came to mind, however after some research, I decided to check the gear selector linkage first. I found that the triangular rubber pad which attaches to the selector rod and can be seen quite easily from below the car, had perished and the mounting bolts for this pad could be wiggled several millimetres fore and aft. I would imagine that early failure of this cheap and easily replaced part could cause a number of selection problems and I would suggest that you check this. Indeed, I have noticed the gradual worsening of selection problems intermittently over the last few months.
In addition, consider the other following possibilities (not exhaustive but important to exclude before potentially removing the gearbox): air in the clutch system, a failed engine mount (replace your engine mounts with RS ones - they are great), also, sometimes the rubber bellows on the selector shaft can shred and foul the movement of the shaft - again, easily checked. Also check your clutch pedal adjustment, which is easily done. Clutch drag could cause the problem, although it is likely to affect the selection of most or all of the gears. A faulty clutch slave cylinder is another possibility, although again, I would imagine it would affect all gears.
Hope this helps, I am by no means an expert. Check out the simple things first.
Roddy [
]
