Well it had to happen but who figured it would go down like this. My tranny survived for years in my wrx at power levels above 350whp and 400tq but only lasted 3 months in a car with maybe 160whp. I guess it missed the abuse of the drag strip and the occasional road course or auto-x. Now that it resides in my svx it has developed issues going into 1st, 3rd and 5th. I can go from 2nd to 3rd if i lift the throttle before cutching in. Sometimes it will go into 1st easily but others times i have to engage 2nd and then put it in 1st. 5th is just a crap shoot as to when it will go in gear. It never grinds, it simply does not go into gear. Is this synchro related or something else? The gear-oil was very clean when it was changed yesterday. It had been in there for about 30k miles of use on the wrx and about 1500 on the svx.
Try different gear oil? I had the same issue with my NEW tranny. It just wouldn't go into gear. I drained half a quart of the subaru fluid out and put in some syncromesh and it immediately shifted like butter.
Pennzoil Syncromesh. $4 a bottle. Lot cheaper than the GM syncromesh which is the same. I found it at Autozone. You could also use Castrol Hypoy-C (for Uncle Scotty's Cocktail) found at Pepboys.
Oh happy day! The nut in red came loose and the green part was binding with the other linkage. The part has a notch in it to prevent it from rotating and getting in the way but it had worn in such a way the it could spin around. Fortunatley I had an extra.