Sticking in 2nd gear

[premsig]

Greetings

New here but got some great info already. Hoping you guys can help...

My 1989 ex-military V8 110, manual transmission, is having some trouble in the gears department. For a while now, I've been having trouble changing down to 2nd, the gears crunching most of the time. Now I've had a few occasions when it seems stuck in 2nd. I move the gear lever to neutral, but it stays in gear. I can select 1st, 2nd or neutral, but it stays in 2nd wherever I put it. I can get the gear sick into reverse, but when I release the clutch the engine loads up but I don't go anywhere and would eventually stall.

Last night I found that with the engine switched off, I can now change into 3rd, start up and pull away, then change into other gears normally, including neutral (haven't risked 2nd yet!).

My mechanic is saying I need to change the transmission, which is going to be very expensive. Just wondered if this situation rings a bell with anyone and if there might be an "easy" fix before I open up the gearbox from above to take a look?

TIA

Mark

[Merz-Ben]

I doubt it will be an "easy" fix, but at the same time it may not be completely ruined. It soulds like you have a shift fork problem, and if you take the top off of the transmission (and you are mechanically minded) you should be able to look at the top plate with the shifter mechinism and shift forks in it and determine where the shifting problems lie. If you are not comfortable diagnosing the issues, I would think that there could be a mechanic nearby that would take a look at the trans in the car and determine exactly what is wrong with it, and posssibly fix it while still in the car.

Cheers,
Ben