You are correct it should work in all gears. However if the pin is worn enough to pop to the wrong slot it will continue to fail. Now you can see how it works and identify the failure.

 

Andy, what is the proper name for the lever that I'm having problems with?

 

I do not know the correct term for that piece of linkage. I will ask over on 6 sphere Saturn there are a lot of S gurus over there.

 

It looks like you can remove the four bolts and the shift tower will just lift off the transmission. There is a gasket that you will probably have to replace or make. Then you can look at the linkage and get it repaired. Or maybe get the top off one at a wrecking yard. That part may be the same on all S series manual transmissions. It looks like the spider pin comes out and destroys lots of S series transmissions when the horse power gets turned up with a turbo. Sixthsphere is the high performance S series forum. You might post a wanted add for a shift tower from a blown up low mile trans.

 

Well, I definitely appreciate the info as well as everyone's effort towards the resolution of my problem. It may be a while before I can either attempt the removal of the shift tower or have my local tranny guy take a look and quote me.
All I can say right now is "stay tuned" and I'll let everyone know I make out.

 

Andy, would like to get your 2 cents on this...............if that "pin" is just that...a pin...then what about removing it from whatever holds it in place on the bottom (haven't had a chance to look yet) and replacing it with a bolt that would prevent the entire arm from moving? As it stands now, I can grab the lever and wiggle it enough to move it in and out of the proper slot. Perhaps a bolt type of replacement would enable the entire lever to move as designed but not move up/down when grabbed. I think that the movement that I'm seeing now is caused by years of use. Now, if this pin performs some other function within the housing then my theory won't work but I'd venture a guess that it's just a straight pin that enables the lever to pivot.

 

There must be a retainer of some kind on the bottom. You may have to remove the four bolts and the tower to take it apart. If it is just a wear issue then you probably can shim it with some washers. If it has an E clip in a groove and things are worn out I drill a small hole and use a washer and a cotter pin. Be sure to source the gasket if possible or be prepared to make a new one out of gasket material available at a parts house. Gasket material is available in various thicknesses, I keep an assortment of thicknesses in my shop just for this kind of issue. It is often as simple just to make a gasket as try to locate one. You will want to clean the outside of the transmission in the area you are going to work on.

 

Well, the weather hasn't allowed me to do further investigation until today. Here is a pic of the bottom of the pin that holds the "L" shaped shift bracket on the transmission. My initial take on it was that it's some type of round nut that might just need to be adjusted to tighten, what appears to be, the threads underneath it. "Or" what looks like threads could be a spring. I need to get in there and see if its' adjustable.

 

I have been thinking about this and the guys over on sixth sphere seem to run a lot of S series cars. They also post about turbo charging their engines and having the transmissions fail. I bet someone would sell you a low mileage shift tower in good shape off of a blown up transmission. It seems that the differential pin retainer fails and the spider pin then slides out destroying the case. Bonestock on this site is over there a lot and knows a few of the members. I can start a contact chain if you would like, I have his number.

 

Well, in case someone else experiences the problem I've described and depicted, here's the latest. I jury-rigged the "L" shaped shift lever with some zip ties to hold it in place to see if that would verify my thoughts about it being the actual problem. It worked for about 2 days then it went back to having no 5th/reverse gears. The lever was back in its "bad/improper" position. After disconnecting the (2) shift cables from the tranny and manually push/pulling the shaft coming out of the tranny, I got it back into reverse. I was in the process of reconnecting the shift cables when I noticed that the cable that connects to the "questionable" lever would create either downward or upward pressure (torque) on the lever depending on how you connected it. The initial way I had it connected was exerting upward pressure on the lever causing it to be, well, sort of loose. When I took the cable off and turn it (by this I mean is that I just turned the round connection point on the end of the shift cable from one side to the other side) it created downward torque on the shift lever which firmed things up quite a bit. It wasn't floppying around like before. So, I took it for a run and shifted the beegeebers out of it with no problem. After the run, I grabbed the lever to see if it was loose and it was "not". It was 100 times tighter than before. So, I'm going to run around with it in the coming weeks to see if I run into the same problem. Andy, I did not take you up on your offer regarding a contact chain to Bonestock as I may have a bearing on a "transmission control lever housing kit" in the near vicinity so I wanted to check that out first. Again, I'm back on the road and hopefully for a longer period than before. I want to thank you and Derf for all the help you've provided. I learned a lot and it's "people helping people" that really works in this world. Oh yeah......"LONG LIVE SATURN".