Why is my gear stick/stick shift wobbling and stuck in 2nd gear?

July 9, 2004 7:49 PM

I was stop and go driving for about an hour today (hanging flyers for my job; the car's a manual transmission '95 Saturn) and after I finished I was heading back to the store when I hear a pop and my stick shift is just wobbling around. I still have to hold the clutch to start the car but it is stuck in second gear so I can get it going but only drive 10-15mph. What in the hell just happened?
posted by untuckedshirts to travel & transportation (11 comments total)

hopefully, it's just a linkage where the stick shift fastens to a lever of some sort on the tranny. a bolt or cotter pin will fix it right up. hopefully.
posted by quonsar at 7:55 PM on July 9, 2004

...although they may have to take out the transmission to do it. It happened to me once, although it broke clean off in my hand like an acme product. That was an old land rover, though, so such things were to be expected.
posted by ulotrichous at 7:58 PM on July 9, 2004

It's either a bent shift linkage, a snapped cable, a shift rail or interlock failure, or a broken gear inside the tranny.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:01 PM on July 9, 2004

Sounds like a snapped cable.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:02 PM on July 9, 2004

any idea, ballpark, (labour not included) of what i'll be shelling out? I've had almost $600 worth of work done on it in the past 2 months so I'm not looking forward to spending more.

also, the $600 of work is completely unrelated to the transmission.
posted by untuckedshirts at 8:25 PM on July 9, 2004

Sounds like it may be a broken or lost clip.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:03 PM on July 9, 2004

Civil_Disobedient's answers are all possible, untuckedshirts. The answer is somewhere between $30 and $1500, depending on which answer is the winner. If the problem is external to the transmission, I doubt you'll be in for much more than a C-note. Otherwise, learn to enjoy ramen noodles.
posted by trharlan at 9:29 PM on July 9, 2004

sounds like a snapped cable. happened to me just after buying my used car - though mine is a 2002, and its hydraulic (it was 45 below zero, so thats probably what did it). we had to replace the minor _______ (the name of which i cant remember... but there was a major ________ too). whatever you do, dont take it out of 2nd gear, because then you wont be able to get it into any gear.
posted by rhapsodie at 10:08 PM on July 9, 2004

Sounds like it may be a broken or lost clip.

Happened once to my mom's car. She scavenged a cork and paperclip from the glovebox, wedged in her makeshift clip and drove it for several thousand more miles without a problem. Talk about a cheap fix.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 10:15 PM on July 9, 2004

Now this is one question where you can't yell Google it ! Well done.
posted by y2karl at 11:46 PM on July 9, 2004

It might help us more if you can recall *where* you heard the snap come from.
posted by sleslie at 1:16 PM on July 10, 2004