Fortunately a fellow enthusiast saw me struggling with it and offered to help. With a little fiddling we were able to find second. If I had known AAA would take 3 hours to come I probably would have just driven home in second, but I was worried about whether I could go uphill from a stop if I had to.
Also fortunately, it sounds like the problem is just something in the gear selector/linkage area. A wonderful opportunity to become familiar with how the shift linkage works. I tried to get in there to have a look, but wasn't sure how to take the carpet off and remove the tunnel cover without damaging the carpet. It seems like things may have been glued on that oughtn't have been glued on.
I already replaced the alternator which was really pretty easy all things considered. After I fix the gear selectors I imagine the cooling system and/or clutch will be next to go. It already has, as the Haynes Manual says, a slight "judder when taking up drive." God damn, the Brits are silly--but I kind of love it.
Wally, fellow Triumph/MG people--ever do any transmission work? The gear selector sounds relatively trivial (aside from things like worrying about damaging my carpets) but how hard is the rest of it? And what joyful, unique failures have you all experienced?
