Not shifting into 3rd gear

When I first drove my car, it would shift from first to second alright, then wouldn't shift again until 45 miles an hour and won't shift again so I assume that's overdrive. On my way home from work I manually shifted through the gears starting in first. I hit second and it shifted. Then I hit 3rd and nothing even after 45 mph. I then moved it to overdrive and it shifted again. What's the deal here? Did my third gear go out?

Were there any previous signs of slipping?

What year is your car? Hopefully it's just a solenoid!

no, not that I noticed. It's a 1997 N/A. Should it no matter what shift though all the gears? Or will it skip a gear depending on acceleration?

My 1997 s/c (HD) trans started doing that at about 170k mi and I ended up replacing it with another one from a 1998 riv. I'm sorry since that probly doesn't help you at all but at least you can likely rule out a pcm or wiring issue. I can tell you that the trans will probably continue to operate normally without 3rd gear for a long time. I drove mine like that for several thousand miles without any other trouble and I reckon it would have gone plenty longer.

do you know what the issue was? Is it repairable or does it need to be replaced?

I don't know but on a transmission with over 170k on it, the line between an isolated repair and a necessary rebuild is thin.

What kind of miles you got on her?

104k, it's been religiously serviced by previous owners. 30K ago trans was flushed. There are several wiring issues. Cruise doest engage, the light will come on when the button is pushed then go off when it's released. The lights on the climate control dont work. And the drivers door trunk release is intermittent...

I don't know enough about this trans to tell you if a single shift solenoid or the like can be responsible for 3rd gear never working.

Anyone know of a way to test this?

If its a gear clutch they almost always start slipping first. Leads me to think it's something electronic,

I just got the car 500 miles ago. Last week. It was like this before I got it, I was just never sure of the problem. It may have slipped before I got it, I don't know.

same damn thing happened to me a week ago....shifted into 1st into 2nd fine...and 2nd into 3rd slipped into gear....uhhh i was low on fluid, try that, you never know when stuff might work

what does it mean to "slip" into gear?

I found a transmission with 64K for $850. How difficult is the swap?

the rpms would eventually fall far enough down to shift, the best way i could think to explain it

I don't notice any slipping in any other gears. I have a shift solenoid coming. Is there a writeup on how to change it out?

Ok guys, I'm going to switch out the shift solenoid after I finish this Army stuff today. I still can't find a writeup on it or anything on my online shop manual. Any ideas or advice?

ok, looks like I'm going with a rebuild. Should cost less than a used tranny...