Driving home today, one of my transmission cables went out, leaving the car stuck in 3rd gear... so that was fun. Anyways, upon arriving home, I found the problem to be a break in the cable that is moved with forward-backward movement of the stick. Looking online, I can find shift and selector cables. Which cable is which?

It's a 1985 Fiero 4 cyl with an Isuzu 5 speed.

Shift cable - front to back
Select cable - side to side.

If your tearing into it to replace one, I'd replace both. One has already broke how long will the other one last?

Yeah, I probably should do that. It'd probably help the slop I have in the shifter as well.

Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it.

quote Originally posted by tebailey: If your tearing into it to replace one, I'd replace both. One has already broke how long will the other one last?

Although in the case of the Getrag, the tranny end of the select cable basically points straight up... which is ever so inviting for water to enter and allow corrosion to take place. On the other hand, the shift cable is positioned quite differently and should far outlast the select cable.