Tranny Issue

[Red76]

I now own my second Spider. When I was in my early 20s I owned a 79. Fast forward 20 years and I own a 76. Both have the same issue. The 76 I have now will not go into first gear. On the 79 it was 2nd gear. I thought this might be a clutch issue but 2nd through 5th are perfect. If I try to put it in 1st gear with the motor running it feels like it is being blocked so it cant go in all the way. If i press the shifter to where first should be and let off the clutch while I holding the shifter it moves the car a bit but then pops free. It also will not go into 1st gear with the motor not running.
I guess this is a fairly common problem. Any pointers?

[red107]

I had the same issue with my transmission. Sounds like a worn shift forks or worn slider, drop the pan and insp. It shifts fine so synchros are good. you will have to tear it apart to fix. I ended up getting rebuilt transmission. Swapped in out in a day. Real easy to do with the right tools. There is a few shops in your area. Rick from RML works on and Races Alfa's. I used him for a few of my fiat issues. There was another shop but not sure is it still open called daytona spider. He rebuilt my engine for me six years ago. There is also a fiat mechanic in gainsville that owns import auto on main street. There is also a fiat trained guy just south of Jacksonville that I used for my tranny woes. He is 80 years old and has a ton of parts. There are a lot of fiat guys in the Orlando area. I know Jaime in orlando has a tranny he was rebuilding from his parts car.

[rasouth]

I tore apart my tranny to fix a similar problem with 5th gear. If you are confident in your ability to tear your tranny apart and you have a good repair manual with pics, all you would need is to replace the worn or damaged parts. Might be a little cheaper than trying to find and buy a used tranny.

[svb]

I seem to be having this same problem, only with 4th gear.

It's not the worst since 3rd and 5th still work, but if I try to put it in 4th while moving, it feels like it's rubbing and the shifter won't go all the way into place. If I try to put it in 4th while stopped with the engine off, again the shifter simply won't go into place.

Since this problem started, I've been able to get it to slip into 4th once. I thought it was because I was rev matching but I haven't been able to replicate my success at all since.

4th was fine until about 99,5xx miles and then this issue came out of nowhere. It started when one of my friends was driving the car so I'm not even sure what the first indication/symptom was. After driving the car he says to me "oh so I figured out, I guess there isn't any 4th gear" and I was like "WHAT"

So I'm just trying to understand -- this is not a synchro issue?