Won't shift into reverse, lost spring ??
 

Luckily this happened while trying to back out of my garage. Tried to put it into reverse and it wouldn't budge. Selecting all the other gears are no problem. At first it seemed i just couldn't find the right "Slot" , after trying several times, seems i lost the entire reverse gate and spring tension
All combos were tried, 1st then rev, 3rd, then rev, nothing worked, tried moving the car back and forth, made no difference. Now it seems the gear lever moves easily back and forth in a wide range, and seems to be missing the entire reverse gate.
Still shifts easily into the 4 forward gears

Looked at the set screw and pinch bolt on the rear coupler, they seem tight.

Shifter has been smooth as silk, tranny is tight , fresh rebuild 2K ago

The past few times i've been out it has been a bit harder to find reverse, i wonder if i popped the bushing off the bottom of the shift lever or a spring broke. I have no spring tension when trying to put the lever into reverse
Any thoughts

I just got done with a track day at Mid Ohio and have the same issue. Cannot get it into reverse. It seems to still have slight tension and moves only half as far thru the gate as before. Thus not able to engage reverse. All other gears work as before.
Anyone have procedure to check things?

Under the front cap of the trans, there is a part that engages reverse. looks like a 2 inch long clevice running vertically....they break
Part number 930 303 019 00

the set screw that holds the selector bar with the cupling is taped. when the selector bar hole gets marginaly enlarged the gear that suffers the most is the furthest away one. you just have to remove the alan screw, file the tip so sits tighter into the hole and everything will come to noraml. easy peazzy. let me know if any luck.

Did you fix it? My car is starting to do the same. Will not slide into reverse on occasion, its like the gate isn't even there. For a while, if I placed the gear lever all the way to the right, between 3rd and forth, and then quickly pulled laterally to the left, it would slide in... I wonder if its the same part that needs to be replaced. Ah, fun winter projects...

bpu, the coupling screw behind and between the seats is most probably the culprit. make sure it's tightened down,, Just fixed the problem on my car, had to drill it out and helicoil it.. works great now

Tried that first... no luck :).

I just had my car do this very thing. I am not much of a DIYer, but I will try the coupling screw thing first before I resort to calling my wrench.

Weirdest thing too. I backed out of my driveway no problem, drove across town to a car wash, pulled up, and couldn't find reverse to back out again. All other gears are okee dokee.

Had a similar problem 2 weeks ago myself. Gear lever movement became very loose and had trouble selecting reverse. Turned out to be the plastic bush which secures the front of the shift rod that connects to the coupling (at the base of the shifter). Mine had come out of it's metal housing. I refitted and glued in place and everything works good as new again. Might be worth a look.

OK, a question for the experts: do I risk doing damage to anything by driving with no reverse? Obviously I won't be able to park anywhere but I would like to get on the roads while the weather is nice. I'm hoping to have time next week to take a look at the problem.

Thanks!

No risk, as long as it's just coupling wear or adjustments preventing you from grabbing reverse.

Thanks Mark! Since reverse just disappeared last week, and all of the other gears shift smoothly, I am fairly confident it is one of the issues discussed above.

Was this solved?
Had the same problem today and it would be helpfull to know
how you solved the reverse gear problem...

thanks
Falk

Solved it by myself within a few minutes.

The small allen screw at the rear coupler was loose.

Falk

Ditto here, easy fix, actually put on a new coupler, inexpensive, good for another 30yrs, LOL