Need Advise: 1st gear keeps popping out

[Avery]

Hello All:

A friend, who has an 83 SC, was complaining of difficulty downshifting into first gear. I helped him to replace the plastic bushings and the tranny shifts magically into all gears very smoothly. Trouble is, while coming off of a dead stop, tranny pops out of first gear at about 2000 to 3000 RPM. Otherwise, the tranny shifts just fine into all gears. We've fiddled with the adjustments but to no avail.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what's going on here and more important, can anyone offer suggestions on what I can do to eliminate this issue?

The tranny has no grinding and no noticable noise to speak of. I'd hate to go down the route of rebuild without exhausting all other easier fix approaches. The car does have 140,000 on it.

thanks,

Felmir

[john walker's workshop]

see that the shift handle doesn't hit the edge of the shift tower before 1st is totally engaged. pull up the boot to see. otherwise, check this thread.

Can't Shift Into First