Manual gearbox problem

My wife has a 95 SL with a 5-speed manual. on Thursday, she called me and said it wouldn't go into 2, 4, or Reverse. I can't seem to find the haynes repair manual (not that it was worth a hill of beans anyway). I put the car up on jackstands today to check things out, but it looks like the gear changes are executed by two cables which run into the gearbox. Before I go through the hassle of pulling things apart, can someone point me in the right direction? I can't even see where to add gear oil. If I have to have a shop do the work, I'm going to donate the piece of junk to charity for the write-off and buy an old toyota.

i will take the car if you donate it

i will take the car if you donate it

Are you a tax-deductible charity?

well no, but if you dont have to show proof that you gave it to one you cxould just say you did, i could use a car to work on in my auto class for transmissions, i could try to get some money saved up to, you in califronia????????????????????

A couple possibilities: either the bolt in front of the shifter that holds the cables in place is loose, or you could have a bad cable. First, try checking out the shift cables in front of the shifter by removing the console. When you are shifting into 2nd, 4th, and Reverse, you are pushing the cables on the passenger side through. If everything looks good at that end, check ends of the cables that connect to the shift tower on top of the transmission.

The gear oil goes into the same tube the transmission's dip-stick is in. This is located below the master cylinder. The top is red in color.