Strange one this, My lad took the car to Oulton park for the Gold cup today, driving home he stopped at some traffic lights - handbrake on, out of gear. The lights changed, he tried to select first gear, and really struggled to select it. Once the car was moving, there was no problem (each gear was easily selectable), but when stationary (with the engine on or off) 1st and 2nd gear couldn't be selected thereafter. Similarly, if the car had been left parked in gear (as you might when parked on a slope etc.) it took considerable effort to move the gearstick back into the neutral position.
When he got it home I had a look and sure enough the gear stick moves across into the right position to select 1st or second but trying to push the gear level up into 1st or pull it down into 2nd isn't possible, it is almost like it is jammed against something hard. I haven't tried to start the car and drive it to see if I can select 1st and 2nd whilst the car is moving but he managed to limp it home so I'm guessing what he says is true. That's what seems to be the weird bit, I would have thought it was either selectable or not if a cable was off
This is Paul Watkins old car and I believe it has a short shift kit installed and updated Gear shift cables but not really sure what version. I'm assuming this is likely to be related to the cables but have read through some of the earlier posts and can't really make too much sense of them (yep I'm maybe not the smartest cookie in the jar).
Thinking it is a trip to a Lotus specialist tomorrow as I am heading to Scotland and this car needs to be sorted for the 13th Sept as I'm supposed to be heading to Italy with it
Any guidance would be useful although it will probably be only to pass it onto the garage I end up dropping it off at, assuming I can get it there of course