I see a lot of posts about gears not staying put going through the forum, but I have yet to see someone who is stuck in a gear. A few weeks ago I was driving through some canyons when some idiot in an Impreza decided to merge into my lane without warning and almost put me into a guard rail. I laid on the brakes and horn, getting out of the way just in time. Due to my loss of speed I attempted to downshift only to be greeted by the nasty sound of grinding if I tried 1-4, clutch in or not. 5 and 6 acted the same RPM vs Speed wise, and I got to drive the rest of the hilly canyon in 6th gear (fortunately these things have some power!) I drove until I got to a gas station on the other side and rolled in.

Long story short, I think the shift rod for 5th and 6th gear came apart or something. I trailered it back home and it is in my garage now. I am in the process of removing the tranny as I have time, and one of the steps is draining the fluid. I was greeted with the attached picture. I am guessing a pin or something that holds the rod together broke? The tranny was not making any nasty noises for the 10 or so miles it took to get out of the canyon, and besides 1st to 2nd not always being easy to quick shift between, this has been the nicest manual I have ever driven. How worried should I be?

 

Can't say what's happening with 5th and 6th gears, but I know that the Owner's Manual warns you about not downshifting into 1st above 20mph. The synchros have their limits.

If you can repair it yourself, go for it, otherwise I would just find a good used trans and replace it with that.

 

Even if you can do the labor yourself the parts are quite expensive to do a rebuild. You can likely find a good used one for a lot less than the price of the parts to fix even the syncros. And by the looks of the metal on the drain plug you likely have a lot more going on than that

 

I have accepted that a new tranny may be in order, but I am morbidly curious what happened. I was attempting to downshift from 6th to 4th when this happened, as I had dropped from 70 to about 50 in a short period of time, and got the grindies. I am wondering if the shavings are from whatever pin is supposed to be holding the shift rod to the shift assembly getting ground to powder when it came loose. If so I may be golden. 2nd gear's syncro may be a little worn, but I never had a hint of a problem with any other gear on this tranny.

 

Not sure what year you have but if you have a S1, try to find an S2 gearbox. Much better unit.

 

Since I was dropping the transmission anyway I figured I would have a peak.
This was so simple to fix and I have not had an issue since. (I did the repair in May, it cost about $30)
The collar that connects the shift fork to the rod had split in half! (see the picture)
I pulled the top cover off the transmission, took a few bolts out of the assembly, knocked the drift pin out of the shaft, and put it back together in reverse order.
Before you go and buy a used tranny, give it a look under that cover!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/RHHsW3aFAxGfkxgi9