I havent been driving the car hard at all the past few days, this morning on the way to work the shifter stopped letting me put it into third. it was a little rough into 5th but that cleared up. i have never had any transmission or clutch issues in the past, this isnt something thats been getting worse or happening slowly. the car shifted perfectly yesterday.
when i got to work i checked under the hood and the levers and linkages werent bound up or catching on anything. with the motor off i can shift easily into every gear except third, so i dont think its the clutch.

has anyone run into this before?

 

check the shifter bushings on the base unit and the transmission

 

check your bushings or you syncro might have gone out

 

i havent really messed much with it but i suspect a shift fork fell off or moved.
im throwing together my 2.4 and im going to just rip the whole car apart and see what the inside of the trans looks like.

 

Shift forks don't fall off. If not the shifter bushings, then perhaps a synchro spring.

 

Shift forks actually can fall off/move if the roll pin falls out. But that would also cause issues with going into 4th.

 

the 6 speed has double roll pins holding the forks so I doubt it could be the case..

however, it also has a complex interlocking mechanism that makes it impossible to have two gears engaged at once.. maybe one of the plugs holding the ***** in fell out and the system is not working correctly.. or it is a internal problem (being the worst)

I noticed that it is sometimes hard to engage reverse when using solid link bushings but never anything with 3rd

 

i was thinking maybe a sheared roll pin... its just weird the trans feels fine in all gears but third and as far as i can tell its not external with the linkage.
i will be able to mess with it in a week or so after this hurricane is done levelling my house

 

i had some time to play with it yesterday.
i removed the linkage from the transmission side on the upper/forward arm which is the fore/aft movement on the shift lever.
when you go side to side on the shifer this upper/forward arm moves up and down.
i was able to lift the linkage and go left and right to engage 1st and second
i can push it down and go left and right to go to 5 and 6.
in the middle i can go toward center of car/engine to go into 4th but outward, toward wheel it will go most of the way but wont click into 3rd.

would appreciate any thoughts or experience on this. im figuring it need to come apart no matter what. hopefully i can get to it soon.