Temporarily couldnt select R,1,3,5 Gears - Thoughts? -SOLVED

Evening all, Can I pick your collective brains. I havent got underneath to look yet, but thought someone might be able to point me in the right direction, so I know the likely culprit...... I took the 996 for a decent run to the South-coast yesterday (120 miles or so). When I got down there, I slowed down for a roundabout and discovered I couldnt select 3rd - it just felt like jelly where it should be. I then realised I had lost the ability to select, 1st or 5th (or reverse). As I was there meeting someone for lunch, I went ahead with that and then came back to the car a couple of hours later. I decided I would nurse the car home with 2,4 and 6th gear. Initially I still had the same selection issues. Then about 5 miles into my return journey, I suddenly had all the gears back again and it didnt miss a beat.... Am guessing it may be an adjustment issue, as I cant see how they could function at all if a connector had come off the linkage (or a cable had snapped). Would welcome any thoughts.

Ok .. so i'm assuming this is a manual car as no dash message which if it was a tip you would certainly have had . Gearbox fault .. pretty unlikely as if something breaks there it's broken and doesn't get better .. It sounds like a cable issue but as it's better now its not snapped or disconnected .. That pretty much leaves me with the cable connection on the gearbox is adrift .. if you look at the box you should see if its this or not . I tend to stick a cable tie around the bracket and cable as a ... Just in case scenario ... i'm figuring it came adrift and has now got caught up in the bracket :dont know: Best i have atm .

Thanks Demort - that makes sense. I did have the connectors off, when I took the gearbox off last year. I will look at that end of the cables and see if any of them are loose. Will check and potentially implement the cable-tie back up system!!!

When I disconnected my cables to fit a bushing kit to the shifter, I had a similar thing after reinstalling everything. The selector would occasionally feel dreadful before something felt like it was 'popping back in' then it was fine for a bit. Turned out I'd not pushed the cable guides back into their mounting properly. I was able to reach in and snap them into place by just loosening the transmission tunnel and lifting it a bit rather than stripping it all out again.

Thanks Robert - am thinking it must be a simple fix, as it sorted itself and started working again.....although issues like that are often harder to diagnose than something that breaks and stays broken. Looking forward to taking a look this weekend.

You were spot on.....the upper cable had moved out of its bracket.....but had somehow re-caught in the bracket, when it started working again. I went under and found the cable halfway in the bracket (see photo) - so have pushed it home, bent the clips, so it shouldnt move again and added cable-ties (thanks for the suggestion) to ensure it can never pop out again. Thanks all for the help - turned out to be a cheap (free) fix