3rd Gear does not want to move!????

[t25 dubber]

Hi, I have a 1.7 diesel, 4 speed box. Only today have i been having problems with a short run to my mates house and back. The van would go into all the gears fine, then when i put it into 3rd it would get stuck to the point where im scared to force it into any other gear and result in it snapping. It really was not budging. It was luck if i managed to get it into 4th or 2nd when coming up to a long stretch of road (National Speed limit where i need 4th) or 2nd for a junction etc. Many a time i would have to pull off in 3rd which is just plain nasty. Any ideas??? No knocks, no leaks, never had any problems and it had new clutch 2 years ago and has since done 6000 miles.
Will try tomorrow by giving it a short run to see if its fixed itself. Sometimes however it did go into gear really nicely and other times it wouldnt move, even when compared with the same rev change speed, road surface etc
Really lost, hope someone can help or any advice is appreciated. Thanks

[HarryMann]

You need to check things systematically..

You need to make 100% sure clutch is rleasing fully, even a slight drag can create changing problems if revs not perfectly matched

Check for oil level (whether obvious leak or not!) before going much further... thats wise!

Any noise (whine?), drone ?

If all seems OK, and it truly is intermittent problem then check for a cable or hose getting between g/c linkage or op arms... e.g. throttle cable. Has happened to me!

PS. If it was 5-speed I'd say it could well be broken inside, but maybe not a 4-speed, sp pray!

PS Ask Aidan what he thinks

[Aidan]

broken 3rd4th synchro hub probably, common fault, obviously eliminate the linkages first but if you can't readily get the gears at the box with linkage off then it's internal

[t25 dubber]

After giving it another good run (the same run where the i started to notice the problems), it has seemed to fix itself like most things on my van. There is only a fragment of play sometimes from 3rd to 4th but very unnoticeable and tbh it might be just me thinking its still there. Thanks for all the replies, i will still get it looked at next time garage is in the garage which by looks of things, very soon

[leeroy]

good to hear mate sorry never got back to you about it via facebook been sorting out a new clutch on the van

lee

[HarryMann]

Mmmm, methinks it will return sometime annoyingly

Maybe was something restricting, jamming, confuscating the change mechanism somewhere, somehow ?

[t25 dubber]

Mmmm, methinks it will return sometime annoyingly

Maybe was something restricting, jamming, confuscating the change mechanism somewhere, somehow ?

So do I haha. Its going strong again, going into 3rd no problems and going into 4th or back down to 2nd fine. He probably had a bad day