MG Car Repair: 74 mg midget 1275, wheel wells, shift problem

Question
QUESTION: I took transmission out, took side cover off to check gears,there fine. Put moter and transmission back in, the last thing i done was put shift lever on. transmission seams to be stuck in gear even though it is in neutral postion. Wont go in any gear with shifter.
Thanks
John

ANSWER: Hi John,
Why did you pull it out in the first place? Was this the problem before? I don't understand why anyone would pull an engine and transmission just to look at the gears. If this was the original problem why did you put it back in before you found what was wrong? Please explain and maybe I can lead you to a correction.
Howard

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello Howard, John here,The transmission was makeing a bit of a noise in first gear,the shifter wasnt the problem.Iam geting car painted so i didnt want to have a problem and   pull engine after paint job. A fellow checked the gears and said they not that bad.I changed gaskets on engine ,painted engine as well as wheel wells and frame.
Thanks
John


Answer
Ok John,
If the shift problem only happened after you removed and replaced the shift lever then you need to remove the console carpet and remove the shift lever hump and the shift lever. If you had removed the shift tower when you had it out there is a good chance that you did not get the short forward remote shift lever in the correct location. That is where the three shift rails come out of the gearbox and one at a time are engaged when you move the shift lever. Unfortunately the only way to access that is to remove the engine and gearbox again.
First inspect the end of the shift lever to see that it is engaging the socket it fits into. You have to remove that anyway to get the engine and trans out. If you swapped the shift lever with another you need to look at both because they are a different length. Both look alike.
Let me know,
Howard