Greetings everyone!
I have a '98 SC2 with over 318,000 miles on it and that's not a typo folks. 5 speed manual. Original owner. Thus far, no engine work done on it although the clutch was replaced about 3 years ago. Bought it in Canada when I lived there (26 yrs) and now living in the U.S. A. (Philly area).
I'm normally pretty good at fixing things on my baby but I need some input on this current problem: I can shift 1 thru 4th no problem but it won't go into 5th or reverse both, of which. are on the far right side of the shift tower. It seems that I'm as far to the right as it will go (which now is 3rd and 4th gear instead of the normal 5th and reverse, but I know they're over there somewhere. I pulled the console to have a closer look. Everything seems to be intact (ie; cables and bushings). On one of the old Saturn forms I saw somewhere (can't re-find it now, argh) there was someone who described the same problem. One of the members (labelled as a master member) indicated the following: "The pin on the lower side of the horizontal lever that rides in the sliding collar is worn flat. Remove selector tower and turn pin 90 degrees with a pair of vice grips. Pull the aluminum clip cover off and disassemble and lube. Look for worn bushings on external shift cable ends". I stared at the shift tower hoping the light would come on in my pea brain but I can't decipher that he means. Hopefully someone can get me pointed in the right direction as it bugs the heck out of me when I can't fix it.

 

Here's an update: I had my better-half work the stick yesterday while I watched the two cable connections to the transmission. I wanted to see what was moving and what wasn't. The lower connection moved every time she went thru gears 1 thru 4. The upper connection (this is being viewed straight down from the top) never moved an inch. Does anyone think that this may be a sign of a broken shift cable?

 

Either a cable or fork.

Did you try readjusting the cables? They do stretch over time. And with that mileage I'm sure they've seen better days!

 

By "readjusting" I'm assuming you mean "replace"? And, no, haven't replaced them yet as I wanted to research the issue first. Does the fact that the top lever never moved when going through the gears point to a bad cable? I would think that's likely. Also, how does a bad cable prevent the shifter from even finding the slots for 5th and reverse gears? As it stands now, when it's completely over to the right, you can access only 3rd and 4th gears.

 

Sorry, but I'm not at all familiar with the Saturn stick. Can't help you with that. BUT welcome to the forum. You might try youtube and look up a dude named richpin. He has a lot of posts about various Saturn repairs.

 

Thanks for the welcome. Richpin was the first place I went.

 

Sorry. I have Ions.

Our cables stretch over time and cause issues like not being able to find gears.
Same when they arent aligned at the shifter

 

DropDead,
Merry Christmas.
Before I venture into the realm of cable pulling and installation, what do you mean by "when they aren't "aligned" at the shifter"?

 

Is there not clamps on the shifter to where it meets the cables?

Thank you, you too!

 

Well there's the clamp (just in front of the shift tower) that holds the two cables to the floor and then the two cables pop onto the corresponding ball/pivot point on the shift tower. Are you talking about having the cables basically crossed mounted on the tranny and not place on the correct ball socket on the tower? If so, that's something that I would definitely be watching when installing the new ones.