87 5KCSQ 1st/2nd gear Kaput

[Nate Stuart]

<Lotsa icky HTML and imaged backgourd omited, bad Balakrishomethingorother,
bad! No pentosin fo' you!>

Anyway, sounds like the pivot ball at the bottom of the shift lever is
working its way loose (upwards). Pull the center console apart enough so
that you can see to the bottom of the stick, what you shold see is a big
greasy white ball firmly recessed inside a cup. What you'll probably see is
a big white paste covered thing that used to resemble a ball... As for R&R
I'm pretty sure you can do it from the comforts of the interior, never had
to do it on my old 5ktq though, just had to pund the ball back down into
it's socket (dislodged it while removing the tranny). I was slowly loosing
my ability to change gears on the way home, starting with first and second.
I think by the time I got home all I had left was 4th (not so fun when you
live at the top of a hill and have to work your brand new clutch...)

Another item I'd check just out of habbit is the input linkage at the
transmission. This is on the drivers side of the tranny 7/8 of the way up.
You can see it and get to it from under the hood. It's only secured to the
input shaft by one pointed set screw, and I've had this thing back out on
both a 4kq, and 5ktq causing problems engaging gears until it finally stops
working all together.

Good luck!
-Nate
'89 90q