I have a 1990 Nissan Stanza with a 5 speed manual transmission. Recenty it has been getting harder and harder to get into 5th gear and reverse which are on the far right using the shift lever. The mechanic I use said to get a shifting rod that goes from the bottom of the shifting lever to the transmission. So far I haven't been able to find what he described by doing a search. Can anyone tell me specifically what to do a search for?

Also in case anyone is familiar with this the clutch gets soft and spongy. This has been going on a long time. I used to get out and bleed it and that helped for a very short while then it was back to getting soft again. As time went on I learned to put it in neutral and pump the clutch and it would start to feel pretty solid again. It still sux though. Recently that doesn't work well any more and I have to pull the clutch pedal out with my foot, which sux a lot! I took it to the mechanic and he changed the "master cylinder" which someone else said is really the slave cylinder. Anyway after he changed it the problem is still the same as it was before he changed it. To me it feels like air must be slipping in somewhere but why did it pump up good pressure before and why did it stop doing so recently? I'm totally ignorant about this sort of thing...

Thank you for any help or suggestions!

David
Maine, USA

Posted in wrong section, Stanza is not a 519 Bluebird.