Driving my car recently I had to stop at a junction. Once I had pulled away I tried to change into 2nd gear but it would not go in straight away and then when it did it jumped out again. I then went into 3rd gear and once again it jumped out but it would stay in 4th. As I was very close to home I manged to nurse the car back using 1st and 4th gear.

I have removed the gear linkage that runs under the engine and just tried changing gear with the shaft from the gearbox. I can see it jumping back even without the engine running.

Any ideas what it could be?

If it is the gearbox does anyone know any way of doing it without taking the whole engine out?

Thanks in anticipation Adrian

It could be a problem with the detent balls and springs on the gearchange shaft or it could be a problem with the selector mechanism but, sadly, there is no way of checking either effectively without removing and separating the engine and box.

Thanks for your reply. Your little picture at the side sums up how I feal at the moment.