Shift Linkage Torsion Spring Death?

[Circe]

Hi all,

So did a rally this weekend to Nevada and after a bit of speeding through the desert pulled over and was unable to downshift past 4th gear. It seems that there is no spring in the shift lever below 4th, can shift into 5th and 6th just fine and back down to 4th but the shift lever does not spring back for anymore downshifting. I did figure out that if I did a 1/2 tap up then down shift I could get it back down to 1st and then go through the gears fine except that 2nd took two taps.
A friend suggested that the torsion spring in the internal linkage may be stuck or broken. Anyone ever have this happen???
I dont think its the clutch lever cause I can hit the higher gears as normal, I dont think its the transmission because again I can get through all the gears with a bit of tweaking and I dont think its the gearing itself since I can get through them.
Very odd.

 

[cv_rider]

YES, I think it has happened to me also. Keits reported it (perhaps) happening to him too. I was just about to start a new thread on this topic. This has happened to me three times: coming from a high gear, and stopping quickly, I downshift through many gears, probably without releasing the clutch between gears. But I can't downshift into 1st. I'm not sure what gear I get stuck in. The first and third times this happened, it was while coming to a fast stop on a freeway in stop-and-go traffic, and I was too panicked to really figure out what was going on. Eventually, I managed to barely get moving without stalling in 2nd/3rd gear, whatever gear I was in. In the second instance, it happened at a long stoplight, and I had a lot of time to twiddle around with the gear shifter. Somehow or another, I finally got back into first gear. Good pointer on a half shift up. I'll try that next time if I'm not too flustered by backing up traffic on the freeway.

This is a very worrisome situation and a real confidence sapper. I don't like the sensation of being stopped and unable to start while sitting in the middle of the freeway. When this isn't happening, nothing seems at all abnormal. It's a very intermittent thing.