tranny locked up last night??????

[DSM1.8T]

last night I was crusin home and I shifted to third pretty hard, then when I went to go to forth the stick wouldn't move????? so I jumped on the freeway and drove toward home except I was in forth, loked in forth, so I figured the shifter cable broke or something. Got it to a parking lot and checked it out, the cable was fine but it was stuck in forth. tried to force it out and now it is just locked up, like not in forth anymore just locked can't even move it, period. what the #### did I do?

 

[RocketDSM]

I had something similar happen, and the method we used to fix it worked, but I don't recommend it without exhausting a few other methods first.

My mechanic buddy and I fumbled around for over three hours and gave up. At that point he hit the part that rotates and has the counterweight on it (can't think of the name right now, brain fart) with a big sledgehammer. Sure enough everything was fine after that. Best we can figure is that forced the shift fork past the point of being able to return, but not sure exactly. Never been a tranny guy, sorry. Investigate the possibility though. Try to avoid the hammer. My transmission died less than a year later from that same gearset having problems shifting.