9U D6 cannot get into 1st or 2nd gear, seems stuck

I started to revive a 9u D6 that had sat 10 years. The rubber boot on the shifter was gone. Same movement as you have. I started pouring a bit of oil down the shifter every few days. With a bit of tapping it seemed to work. Had it moving to go into all gears. But the project has come to a stop as the engine I put on it is leaking water into the crankcase. Very disappointing as the engine had a anti freeze in it coming out of the donor, just sat dry a little over a year.

But do what you can to keep water from running down the shifter lever. New rubber boots are a good way to help keep it dry.

I started to revive a 9u D6 that had sat 10 years. The rubber boot on the shifter was gone. Same movement as you have. I started pouring a bit of oil down the shifter every few days. With a bit of tapping it seemed to work. Had it moving to go into all gears. But the project has come to a stop as the engine I put on it is leaking water into the crankcase. Very disappointing as the engine had a anti freeze in it coming out of the donor, just sat dry a little over a year.

But do what you can to keep water from running down the shifter lever. New rubber boots are a good way to help keep it dry.

Seems one of the shift rails may be stuck or one of the detent plungers from sitting and probably rusting, You can access them under the cover on the side of the transmission. No need to pull transmission.

Thank you. I am also confident that something is just stuck. Glad to hear I can get to the rail/fork assembly w/o pulling the trans. I have ordered all of the manuals for this old girl, but they haven't arrived yet.

Since I'll end up dumping and changing all the fluids anyhow, I decided to use up a bunch of partial gallons/quarts of engine oil, pouring them into the transmission case so the oil level came up to the shift fork assembly. I'll continue to try and unstick this thing, keeping my fingers crossed it'll free up without too much trouble.

So, filling the transmission case full of 15W-40 engine oil did in fact free up whatever was sticking, and I now have all 5 gears! Definitely a sigh of relief.
After spending most of the weekend looking things over, it appears that the only real issues I have to deal with is a loose blade (make/renew some pins) and minor tin work before painting. It's amazing to me how well everything operates. I wish I knew the exact hours, but the meter appears to not be working.

Hello Ortimber, I'm glad your problem was solved so easily.
Here's an easy fix to posting pictures (or avatar), pics taken with the phone held vertically (portrait) will post sideways. Picture taken with the phone held horizontally (landscape) will post correctly.
Craig