Dang--1, 3, and 5 Gone... and I'm out in Bumf***

[patrickt]

... and 2nd and 4th are just about gone as well. Alright, it was just about this time last year that I was once again out in Bumf*** and went to shift and the clutch was nowhere to be found. That required a harrowing tow home because of a loose set-screw. That thread is here: Ehhrggg, Standed by a Set-Screw Well, I was out in BF again today, went for a crisp shift from fourth to third and... you guessed it... third was gone. I mean totally gone. It was like shifting in to cotton candy; there was just nothing there. Goddamm Tremec, I knew I should of bought a Top Loader. So I'm in neutral and I coast over on to this gravel place to see if I can wiggle the shifter and magically make my gears appear. I can't. But I was able to find second... barely, and only with luck. I limp it out on the road and find that if I'm lucky, I can find fourth as well. OK, maybe I can get home with these two, almost there, gears. If they hold up, that is, and I don't need them locking up on me when I'm on the interstate trying to get home. And I've started off accidentally in third from time to time and the FE just grunts and takes it... but I don't know about fourth. Alright, I make it home with very spartan shifting and suspect driving. All the tales about "Tremec Stuck in Gear" and "Tremec Loses Gears" are dancing in my head. I pull the shifter boot ring off and... a bit of luck. See below. OK, so it wasn't the Tremec after all. No Loctite on these bolts, I noticed. And the one bolt that is left is loose as a goose. Well, the car was running great until the gears vanished... but all's well that ends well.