Lost 5th Gear

[samandw]

Car: 1991 Legacy LS 5-speed
Miles: 251k
Mods: Aftermarket Muffler

Drove it to a friends house tonight and just before I got there it was making a slipping/crunching noise in 5th gear at anything over 1/2 throttle starting at around 1500 RPM. Tried the same thing in 4th, no problem. Parked the car. Got in it to leave and when I shifted into 5th, I discovered a new neutral gear. It doesn't engage, or even feel like it's trying to engage. From what little I know of the inside of the trans, I'm guessing a broken shifter fork? Any other possibilities? I'm pretty doubtful of a catastrophic failure of 5th gear itself, as I've never even seen peak torque in 5th gear as long as I've owned the car. While I do sometimes shift quickly into 2nd or 3rd, I almost never do when shifting into 5th . . . and I was planning on leaving for a 1500 mile road trip on Monday. Perfect timing.

[jefferson]

A friend of mines 91 ss had 5th gear stripped when he bought it. I would bet yours is too. He fixed his in the car by just pulling off the tailsection of the transmission. He's a Subaru tech and had access to a lift which would be nice for that. Probably only took him a couple of hrs to fix. At least it's not one of the internal gears of the tranny.

Jeff

[samandw]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8t9YjA8hWY

Bone stock engine. I've never had it over maybe 3500 RPM in 5th gear. Freaky!