Transmission problem

[Velocity562]

Ok so I just bought a 89 fastback with about 170k miles for 1100 bucks.

Why so cheap? Well there is a pretty significant transmission problem..I just dont know if its an easy fix or if I should just get a new transmission all together.

The problems are with 5th gear and reverse. I was told that it will sometimes go into 5th gear but will get suck and wont come out.

And you just can't physically put it into reverse at all ..it just wont go.

The seller said he talked to a mechanic before about the problem and he said it was because of some sort of bolt or screw that is protruding somewhere that is keeping it from going into gear.

I dont know if thats true or not..but he also said this was a common problem with 240s but I've never heard anything about that happening before.

So I want to know if this is something that someone with moderate experience can fix by getting under the car or something or will I have to take this in..or is it totally jacked and I should get a new transmission all together?

any help is greatly appreciated!

[proto_moose]

The mechanic your seller talked to was probably talking about a ball bearing detent, that is a shifting lockout. It prevents two gears being engaged at once. The shift forks have slots on them, and the ball bearings slide in once in gear and mechanically lock out all other shifting. Your fifth gear and reverse will run on the same shift fork, so the lockout mechanism for that fork is probably bound up. It could also possibly be that the synchornizer key's have slipped away from the snap rings that hold them to the sychrohub. Either problem can be fixed by a ASE Certified Transmission mechanic. The shift fork binding problem is probably the easier of the two. Probably looking around 200 dollars. One oppurtunity is to go to AAMCO and have them diagnosis the problem. They can find out for sure what it is, and most locations do the diagnosis for free. If the happen to fix the problem without your permission, then you generally don't have to pay. However, if they do fix it, and it's inexpensive, you probably should.