thanks revhead001, I pulled the box out last night, striped and found just what you explained, but it has not been pulled down I think it was done in transit heavy handed post. thanks again for the info.

Pigdog is on the money. What has happened is the shifter finger has dropped from it's gate after 1st has been selected. It is easy to do and the box was most likely pulled apart before you bought it and not assembled correctly (easy to do). What you need to do is remove the extension housing and realign the finger or with the front housing off and the shifter in 4th gear try and get the 1st rev rod back to neutral. If you keep trying to select the 2 gears at once you are going to smash stuff quite badly in the box.

If the input shaft too long and tight up against the crank ?
I put a 1200 box in one of my cars once and forgot to check... and had to remove about 6mm off the input shaft to give it clearance

Sounds like 1st and reverse are both engaged at the same time. Had the same drama with a toploader but was a lot easier to sort as the linkges are on the outside.

pull the front and rear housings off...its not that hard to do, and then you will be able to see whats wrong

EDIT: pulling it back out of the car will be the more time consuming part

Hi guys,
I hope that someone can help? I'm building up a 1200, picked up a 5 speed dogleg gbox put it in the car, it seams to be jamed in gear? 1st? it is in drive all of the time? if I put it in a gear, only 2/3/4/5 it stalls the motor and I can't find 1st or reverse ? no noises and oil is good . thanks
P.S. could it have been droped and with no gearlever in jumped into gear or somthing.