Hello Saturn Fans, I have a 98 SL2 car with a manual transmission. My car is a dirt track hornet by the way. I have owned several of these same cars in the past and had a ton of success. This is the 3rd car I have owned and I purchased it from someone who hadn’t finished it yet. Problem I am having is when I put the car in first gear it acts like it’s in 2nd or even 3rd. It won’t get any rpms when I hit the accelerator and just dies like I’m trying to take off in 3rd gear. I don’t smell the clutch or anything burning. Anyone have any idea what this could be or had the same problem?

 

take off the center console. the boot on the shifter will remain but everything else will be visible.
If it is not clutch related but reproducible, I'm thinking something is not right with the shift gate or more likely you have a shift cable issue, either at the gate or on the transmission end of the cable. Which will suck because the only aftermarket ones ever made that I know of were Dorman -- and they were too long. Pretty much unusable. Everyone went and raided the yards for the shifter + cable assemblies like 15 years ago. But a new wreck will have them....

.maybe ebay, never looked

If it is a broken shift cable end loop, see the link below. And when your shifter bushing goes, visit him again. I've used 2 of the stainless ones you jb weld to the shifter ball and they fit perfectly..

https://www.ebay.com/usr/saturnbushingman