Escort mad84

Hi everyone my 5th gear doesn't work all other gears work fine but when I try and change from 4th to 5th it starts crunching and won't engage. I thought it might be the gear linkage. Garage told me it was the gear box. In confused 😫 please help! My car is an escort mk6 finesse 1.6

haz87

Can you get it in 5th with the engine off?
Get under the car, remove linkage and put a screwdriver in the gbox linkage slot and see if you can manually push it into fifth?

Escort mad84

Thanks for replying yes I can put it in to 5th gear when the engine is off. There is abit of play in the gear stick in each gear but when in 5th it feels even looser. I will have another look at the linkage

Caddyshack

A new box or rebuild can't be that nuch can it?