Difficutly engaging 5th?

[technoluddite]

Hi all,

I've been to see a 3.0l GTV today, and I think it might be the car for me except for one thing, it was incredibly difficult to find 5th gear. It's a 1999 car, CF2 I think, with a 5 speed 'box (is this normal? It's the first one I've seen that doesn't have the 6 speed...)

In 'normal' operation it feels like there simply isn't a gear there, with the stick travel ending level with between 3rd and 4th. If I lift the colllar and manoeuvre the stick /very/ carefully it will go into fifth okay, but it's very easy to go too far to the right and miss it completly, or not far enough and end up back in third!

The current owner says that when he got the car the stick was very floppy, and would engage reverse without lifting the collar. So he replaced a spring in the shifter mechanism whch solved this, but caused the problem engaging 5th. He thinks this is because he used to strong a spring.

Does this seem a likely explanation, and therefore a relatively simple (and cheap) fix, or is it likely to be something more serious?

Other than this issue the only other problem is a failed thermostat, so if the gearbox issue isn't serious, I think I'll be coming back to Alfa ownership.

[MarkwG]

I'd walk, personally: bound to be others out there, could well be pricey to fix - if the gearbox needs to come out, false economy not to do the clutch etc as well, so rapidly charges towards big bucks.