hi first post and its a blinder only jus got a 96 plate import wrx and whilst changeing from 3rd to 4th on the duel carrageway bit of a clunk and instantly hit the limiter put it into 5th and everything was hunkey dory till i tried to change back down. only to find no movement other than floping back and forth with a notchy side to side but no selection options at all managed to limp it home in 5th with a now very smelly cluch but have no idea what to look for plz help sorry if any parts of my problem sound simple but im not used to these things yet thanks for ur time

 

are you sure you didnt go from 3rd to 2nd? hitting the rev limiter is a bit of a give away

 

nope it was def where 4th was supposed to be and there was no engine braking cos i immediatly thought the same thing it was more like neutral

 

check your clutch master

 

will do but cluch is working fine just gears. having had a quick look earlyer it seems like selector rod probs but with out droppong the box i suppose its any ones guess

 

Could you get any gears at all? You say the clutch is smelling now, I assume you drove home in 3rd or 4th?

If you have no gears, it could well be the gear linkage before it goes in the box.
One of the joints might have come apart.

 

yeah drove home in 5th hence smelly cluch. cant pull it out of 5th at all not even to get nutral but the linkage seems to be free flowing out of the gearbox ie i got my hand on it at the gear box and i could slide it in and out easy with no resistance (blimy that sounds dodgy) but when i was driving home there was no grinding or any thing from the gearbox and no little tell tail signes befor it happed to give any warning either

 

Selector arm could have jumped out of the locators on the selector rods, or you have snapped a selector rod.

If you push/pull the lever in the back of the box to the left of the prop, and you have no resistance then i think you have done one of the above.

 

how hard are the selector rods do u have to open the box??

 

if the selector linkage has jumped out, relatively easy, just popping the transfer case off should allow you to cure the problem.

If its a broken selector rod, then its box out and removal replace job.