Whilst driving under normal conditions, (Not giving it any stick), and downshifting from 4th to 3rd I suddenly lost all the gears and ended up with a pudding mixer of a gear lever,

After calling out the RAC he informed me it wasn't the cable linkage from the lever but something to do with the box itself, the RAC man had to drag me back home on a bar, (Not a pleasant experience), and now the car is sat immobile on my drive.

Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be and how to fix it.

if u had an RAC guy out & he cant see if theres any damage to linkage/cables etc,then how are we gonna be able to?are you positive that your cables havent broke away from the bell housing?have a look. does your gearstick go in any direction? Take the gearstick gator off & check to see if the cables have come away at that end. only thing i can think of if your cables are A1,is you've lost a fork inside gearbox,or worse

Does anything work if you pump the clutch?

It could be a fluid leak or the thrust bearing has gone.

Another thing worth checking is if the master cylinder at the top of the pedal has come adrift.

They can break away from their mounts and stop you getting a full stroke on the pedal.

All the cables are intact, as when you move the selectors at the gearbox the gear stick moves with it, he believes it's something to do with the selector mechanism inside the box as there is no resistance when you move one of the selectors at the gearbox end.

The clutch is fine, no leaks and plenty of pressure, the gear lever itself can be moved from side to side when you try to get any gear, and can even be pushed/pulled to select a gear without the clutch, it's just like stirring a pudding in a bowl

I just wondered if anyone else had had this problem and how they fixed it

you need to get someone(or yourself) to remove the selector tower.make sure your cars in neutral 1st.it'll give you a better idea of whats missing or broken. On some gearboxes theres a nut at the end that fails.when you say theres no resistance,is it the part that moves the selector up & down,or the one that actually engages your gears by moving the big counterweight to the side etc?

wait a minute.just read that again. youre saying you can select all gears from gearbox??? if thats correct,you have either got a snapped cable somewhere,OR its come off at the gear stick end. you already said theyre still attached at gearbox ok.am i missing something here?lol

It's the one with the counter weight, it just flops backwards and forwards, or side to side dependant on which way your looking at it, and there's no resistance on that linkage, but the gear stick moves backwards and forwards with the counter weight, so it must be inside the box itself.

I was lucky that it didn't jam in gear, but luckily it went t*ts up in neutral

i would remove the tower 1st before goin to the bother of gearbox out job.hopefully its something on the tower.

i have 2 boxes spare,so let me know if you need parts

Thanks stooge, a friend of mine is going to give me the number of her mechanic later today so gonna ring him tomorrow and see if he can do anything with it, hopefully it's just the selector fork in the top of the box that's the problem

try n let us know what it is

It was the selector fork inside the box, haven't spoke to the mechanic as to what he's actually done, but i'll get more info tomorrow when I pick the car up.

Anyway it's only cost me £95 for them to fix it, and they've done it with the box in situ.

At least my daughter will be pleased that i'm not using her car anymore

Update, apparently a bolt had sheared inside the box, they had to replace the bolt and re-tap the threads, but whatever they've done it seems tighter and more direct on changing gear than it was