Lost 1st gear

[sibey]

Was driving in 3rd gear with hand on gearstick ready to change to 4th and felt 'something' through the stick. Pulled over and then could not engage 1st. All other gears work OK including reverse which is forward off 1st on my 5-speed gearbox. . Using 2nd to pull away at the mo but not sustainable. Any ideas where I should start to look?
1.9 DG Petrol 5-SPEED

[jrt]

Will it go into first with the engine off?
If it does I would give the clutch a bleed and take it from there. If not I would get underneath and work my way along the linkage looking for anything suspect.
David.

[Stesaw]

I'd probably drain the gearbox oil, see if you have metal bits if all the linkage is OK.

[sibey]

Thx for responses. Won't go into 1st with engine off. Will check the linkages.

[Aidan]

If you can't get 1st gear with the linkage disconencted then I'd expect that you will find bits of needle bearing on the drain plug magnet, or pieces of selector fork bearing I'm afraid

[sibey]

Aidan did you mean can or can't "get 1st gear with the linkage disconencted"? Disconnected rear linkage and no problem engaging 1st position with gear stick. Does this means nothing wrong with gear selector at stick end and the problem is therefore within the gearbox?

[clift_d]

I think Aidan is suggesting you eliminate the gear linkage from the equation by disconnecting it from the gearbox relay lever, and then see whether you can put the gearbox into 1st using only the relay lever.

If you still find you cannot get it into 1st then you'll need to drain the gearbox and see what you've got attached to the magnet on the drain plug. Make sure you take a bunch of pictures of the drain plug as you find it, and pictures of any bits you find in the old gearbox oil, as I'm pretty sure Aidan will be able to tell you a lot from those.