[tech][non-scirocco] Golf tranny stuck in Reverse

["Wm. Josiah Erikson" <josiah@gsinet.net>]

OK...
    I need the esteemed advice of all you knowledgable people. My friend
Ryan has an '86 Golf and the transmission appears to be stuck in
reverse. It will not come out either by moving the linkage or by
operating the shift lever on the tranny directly. Rocking the car back
and forth does not help. The linkage is not hung up on anything
(although I suppose we could be more sure of this by disconnecting it)
as far as we can tell.
    Background:
    Ryan recently replaced his lower speedo cable because it was broken.
When he took his old one out of the tranny, the plastic gear stayed in
the tranny. He tried to get it out, to no avail, and then just put the
old cable back to keep it from leaking and drove it around for a bit
because he had to get to work, etc. Next time he took the cable out the
plastic gear was gone. Whoops! (laugh) So he put the new lower cable,
with plastic gear end, in the tranny. Speedo works fine. Then one day,
about a week later, he goes to leave work and the car won't come out of
reverse. Any thoughts? Could the gear end have gotten stuck in the shift
forks or something? Could the tranny possibly be taken out of the car,
taken apart by a transmission shop, have the problem corrected, and put
back together?
    This transmission has never had any previous problems. It has 90K on
it (as the whole car does), and does not leak or whine. Tranny level has
been checked recently, and although we wasted a pint of tranny fluid,
the level was probably fine.
    TIA,
    Josiah
    '83 Scirocco (for parts- want some?)
    '84 Rabbit GTi
    '86 Scirocco 8v (for sale- want it?)
    '87 QSW
    http://www.gsinet.net/~josiah

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