I'm posting this for a neighbor who has an older Saturn. He says it will go into 135 fine, but won't do the bottom gears. I did some quick searching and found that the common problem is the bushing. It seems to be intact on the car.

Anyone experience this before? There is some sort of spring that's not connected.

 

we had that issue except it was the other way when we replaced the motor there was a clip at the linkiage that was missing....

 

check shift cable linkage at both ends

 

If it's a 5 speed .............. shifter cables, dealer item.

 

can you put it into any of the gears when it's off? if you can, put it into one of the none working gears, start it, then let off the clutch and see if it wants to start moving or die. If it wants to move, then try tightening the clutch cable, you may have to have someone pry the release bearing arm back while someone else tightens it.

My brothers car did this a few weeks ago, we had to take his trans out and put a different clutch on and he couldn't get it into any gears when he got it all back together.

If my instructions were confusing, let me know and I guess I can rewrite it.