briefly lost 1st and 2nd tonight

Advice needed ..

I briefly  lost 1st and 2nd today .

Been out done about 30 miles I've been driving gently. I came to a stop couldn't get 1st or 2nd .

It felt like 3rd was where 1st should be
I had  3rd 4th 5th and Reverse

I set off in 3rd drove about 500ft and tried 2nd
And it went in to 2nd fine
Then I  tried 1st and all is well .  

All gears appear fine now
Anything I can check

Anybody any ideas ?

im waiting till cosmic or mr b has a guess as would interested to see what they say, but possible selector issue.....just a guess! Every time I've lost 1st and 2nd has been through breaking gears or synchro teethsmd getting debris lodged in places thus stopping me selecting gears! Strange how it's now fine

Yeah i thought oh shit ..
Box was rebuilt fully a few years ago by a very reputable gearbox builder .
At a cost of about £800  
And it gets a very easy life

Well my guess would be a worn bush in the selector linkage...

Like Pulsarmoley says it Sounds like it might be a linkage issue,
If it was gearbox issue you'd probably hear some serious grinding while shifting in those gears.

pulsarmoley wrote:Well my guess would be a worn bush in the selector linkage...

My guess as well.
A sloppy or worn bush will make a lot of difference in selecting 1 and 2.

Worse case scenario would be internal selector mechanism, synchro hub  such as springs in hub.
Could be worth draining just to check for debris but like cosmic points out would expect noise if serious
Shift rod and  support bushings does seem likely and most if original are way past their best .
Mr guest was selling poly support rod bushing, the rubber mount bracket can be converted to solid or solid with small Poly bush which make stick feel way more precise .

Does anyone have a pic of the affected bush .
So I can throw my head underneath and have a look

I was going to say seen where the bolt is slack on linkage or nut on stabilizer makes selection crazy. Also check the little spring. Should nearly be able to tell all the above with engine off and moving the gear stick tho mate

this might help
http://nissan4u.com/parts/sunny/er_n14/1990_11/type_23/power_train/transmission_control_and_linkage/illustration_1/

Jacked it up .. felt all the bushes etc . All nice and tight with no play or slop .. everything tight .

So took it for a drive .
I've done about 10 miles and no problem getting any gears .

Something snaped a bit off in the box and temp jamed gears moved about now so all gears working but box needs oil dropped checked for early indication before anymore long term damage occurs or it floats in box and jams again and trashes gears and box. Not sure exactully where magnet is in box. ( tempted to say part of say a selector fork but I am no expert on internals)

That would be the next thing on my list too, but bear in mind particles might have latched onto the magnet and won't be visible.
All you can do is see how it goes and fingers crossed it doesnt happen again.

What about pressure plate not fully engaging? I had problems and could only get gears with engine off but once running i couldn't get 1st so i had to go through a few gears until i got one but driving along i could get gears fine. Took the clutch out and release bearing inprint on the fingers shows it was pressing off center.

First thing to check is the indent spring on 3rd 4th selector rod as sometimes the spring gets weak and you can find that the ball bearing does not engage detent on selector rod fully, so when you disengage 3rd in actual fact it is not disengaged at all so when you go to select lets say 2nd it cant do it as 3rd is still engaged as its jumped the detent on rod.

Easy fix and your lucky no damage has been caused by trying to crunch gear into 2nd or 1st which you obviously havent done

If you dont know what i mean give me a buzz tomorrow and i will explain what you need to do as not on here much at the mo

Good tip from Bob, easy check and springs/balls cheap if want bang in new., Wouldn't hurt just doing them anyway .