finney24

I have a friend on the other side of the world whose US spec'd 94 4Runner 3.0 manual, 5spd transmission is now stuck in 1st gear. Some people are telling her that her trans is shot and needs to be replaced, but a pretty reliable mechanic in the area has the tranny out and says only the gearbox is bad and he seems to think that if the gearbox gets replaced, the rest of the tranny is fine. When she said "gearbox" I thought she WAS talking about the transmission, but now, I'm thinking the reference is to the top part of the transmission where the stick goes in and stirs the gears into place. She just can't move the stick (or maybe she can't move it into reverse?).

I, unfortunately, am beyond my level of understanding, but if I can figure out how to get her a part shipped over, it will get her out of a jam. Shipping a full tranny isn't an option, so here's a couple questions...

1- Anybody have enough experience with that unit to know if the mechanic is likely on the mark? He says it looks like someone already tried to work on the gearbox previously. What can go wrong to cause the problem she's experiencing? Sorry, no pics (not that it'd do any good without a teardown).

2- IF I wanted to take a chance on the gearbox solution, is that a part that gets set aside when someone puts on a "short shifter" mod? Maybe somebody knows somebody with a standard 5 speed gearbox for sale? I suppose my other option is to see if a seller is willing to tear a tranny down and send only the part I need, but the units seem to sell pretty well complete, from what I can tell.

Thanks in advance.
Finney24