Volkswagen Repair: 96 Jetta Transmission issue, jetta gl, linkage problem


Question
I have a 1996 Jetta Gl with about 85,000 miles and a manual transmission.  I shifted into reverse while backing out of the driveway a little while ago, but when I tried shifting into first (or any other gear) after that, it wouldn't move out of neutral.

I could shift the gear fine when the car was off, but when it was on, it wouldn't go into any gear.  Another piece of info, I could start it in first, but it did not sound good, the transmission shook and it would not shift, though it would move

The problem lasted a day, but now it works fine.  The clutch is in fine shape and I've never had transmission issues before.

What happened and should I have this checked out or will the car be fine?

Answer
Hi Matt;
This is a puzzler.  If the transmission had something wrong with it one day, and then had nothing wrong with it the next day what went wrong?  Sort of like the tree falling over in the woods...did it make a noise?  The transmission is probably just fine.  The issue is probably with the linkage.  Since the linkage has to be pushed down, then the gear selector lever moved over to the left, and then all of the way up into the reverse gear, which is a spur gear attached by a hardened steel "post" on the outside edge of the body of the transmission case itself, and uses the intermediate shaft, and the gear that we all otherwise know as first, it would have to be some kind of linkage problem that showed up once, and then was gone when the linkage was moved again.  Was the car on a hill, or slight incline?  What was temperature outside when this occurred? was it extra hot?  What is the level of the transmission oil?  Is it high?  Too high a level in a manual transmission will make the synchros sluggish, or even "sticky."  In the Volkswagen 5 speed manuals there are 2 intermediate shafts that move independently from one another, the gear sets slide back, and forth, and it is actually the intermediate shafts that you move, when you move the linkage.  It occurs to me that if there was shuddering, and shaking, the intermediate shaft that carries, second gear, and forth gear may have been in a position other than "neutral" and was interfering with the ability to shift gears, or move the car smoothly.  I wish I had a concrete answer for you Matt, but I have only a bunch of theories, and what if's.  Sorry.  I'm glad the car is OK today though, and I definitely would check to see where the level of Trans. fluid is, for certain, if nothing else.  Good luck.