My 4 speed manual transmision in my 84 DL 240 wagon is acting up. May be the clutch. Please reply if you have any advice. The details: one day the transmission refused to go into first or second gear. I cursed for a while and finally got it to go into both gears. It then felt ok for a while, but then the shifter started popping out of second gear periodically when I would let up on the gas. Now, a couple of weeks later, I am sometimes having trouble getting it into first or second gear, but have gotten used to babying it into gear.

I looked in my manual this week-end and crawled under the car to check out the clutch cable. Looks like it is in fine shape (although I couldnt see any obvious adjustments to make). My manual shows a retaining spring pulling the clutch arm in the opposite direction as the cable pulls. Mine does not have this spring. Could my problem be that the spring broke and fell off? I couldnt see any obvious wear pattern in the grit under the car where the spring would attach to the chasis. Let me know what you think. If I can't fix it, I will probably take it to a clutch shop and see if they can diagnose it for me for free. Thanks.