Long time reader, first time poster.

2000 blazer with aprx 160,000 miles, manual, 2 wheel drive. It runs great and seemed hard to kill until a few days ago when my college kid said it takes two hands to shift. Next thing I know It's broken down on the side of the road and stuck in first and will not start without lunging forward. I was able to change it to reverse where it is now stuck and only starts on the go - that is, turning the key with clutch in turns and starts the engine and lunges backwards, but it runs fine in reverse; cannot get it into neutral.

OK here is what I have done. The clutch master cylinder fluid was black and full of air bubbles. I drained and flushed the cylinder and line with new brake fluid. I bled the air out so that the clutch pedal has adequate resistance. No real change after doing this.

I have not checked trans fluid level.
The shift lever seems like it is in neutral.

There was no trouble with shifting until two days before it got stuck in gear. Am I facing more than one issue here? Possible linkage broken at shift lever and or slave cylinder not working?

your Ideas and thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Also could any more damage have been done by the way the flat bed tow truck dumped the blazer off? It was on the truck backwards and stuck in reverse so he had to jerk the platform back and forth forcing the blazer wheels to roll against the gear it was in.

 

IMO bad clutch if its hard to shift, but I had that happend on my ranger.

 

car repair shop says the groments or cylinders under the shift handle are worn and fallen into the transmission, as a result the trainy has to be opened and parts replaced. Is this a likely scenario given the age of the blazer? rebuild in order. I shopped for use transmission but the prices seem unreasonable.