<E30> transmission problem

["Mike Theuri" <mikesoft@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm asking this on behalf of a friend, he was driving down I-40
and tried to shift from 4th to a lower gear ( I believe it wasn't 3rd
and that he was probably trying to explain to someone that it 
wasn't possible to do so)  but the gear shift would not go in at 
all, and thats when he had a little clink (the sound a small piece 
of metal would make if it fell on the floor)  but thats the only sound 
he says he heard, no grinding or anything like that, went back into 
neutral and tried again, the proper way, it went in place in 3rd but 
nothing picked up, the engine revved but nothing moved, he tried 
2nd, 1st but nothing doing.  He eventually had the car towed. My 
suspicion is that the one of the gear clips attached to the shift (hope
I got it right) got out under pressure, I asked him if he had checked 
it out but he says that to do so he would need to take down the 
transmission, (BTW  the car is an '85 325 more or less similar to 
mine), I checked under my car and I saw what he was talking about, 
you can see the rod moving when shifting but this rod runs straight on
where its covered by the transmission. I told him about the other 
possibilities that might have happened, a bad clutch plate or a 
bad transmission but he insists that they are a remote possibility as
they were in near perfect order, based on his information I'm made to
think a clip might have come off under pressure. Any ideas into
what might have happened ?  Thanks 

Mike 325 '86 166k

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