Anyone know how I can fix this problem or what happened? I was driving during normal shifting and I noticed my shifter get extremely lose and I can't get into reverse or any other gears except 3 and fourth. The jetta is diesel, 1989, anyone know what I can do?

 

Ermm I belive your clutch is gone.... Gotta get a new 1

 

do atranny flush and replace the filter

 

89 diesel = manual trans
broken shift linkage
have someone move the shifter as you look down at the back of the trans ther are some dog bone looking link rods that break off
or it is the relay arm ball that your mane shift rod hooks to you can see this from under the car its held on with a 13mm nut somtimes the ball comes off but they loosen up all the time

 

damn a old post again that brienB keeps pulling up old stuff

 

just be glad that your casing on your tranny didnt bust out like mine did.
My original tranny in my car busted back in april.
turns out the bolt that holds the pin in for the gears in my tranny sheared out and dropped the pin causing my gears to lock up.
lucky enough that i hit the clutch and the brake in enough time before it could do any serious damage to my engine.
once i got the car stopped i couldnt see anything that could have been wrong until i started my car back up and my front wheels had locked up completely.
I had to call my mother and have her get me a tow truck so i could get the car to my dad's house.
They ended up having to jurk my car on to a rowback and once they had it at an angle you could just watch the tranny fluid pour out from underneath the car.
I was MORTIFIED!!!
Thats the worst sight for a teenage girl who knows more about mustangs then jetta's.
Usually i can look at a car and kinda figure out right off the bat what is wrong but when i heard the huge pop come from underneath my car i was in complete Aw.
It sucked but o well it was a good lesson to learn.
Thankfully enough i was driving down a back road coming home from lexington and not down the interstate.

So $500 and 3 days of hard labor i finally have my car back.