I own a 1990 Honda accord ex manual. The car sat for 8 years and took me 2 months to get it running and fix bad oil leaks. Runs and drives and just had a mechanic do my transmission fluid since the drain bolt and fill plug was very tight and I couldn’t get them off. He inspected and made sure it was shifting fine which it was. 2-5 and reverse shifts into with ease and no problems. But 1st is very difficult and kinda have to be forced. It drives good other than a vacuum leak but can shift into 2nd and 3rd without any issues. The mechanic said it’s the shifter linkage bushings are bad and well somebody else just told me it’s the clutch shifter linkage that needs adjustment. I’m not sure how to go about this and want some info before diving straight into it. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

Fix the vacuum leak before doing anything else. First gear won't want to go in if the RPMs are marginally higher than idle.

Linkage bushings are a cheap, easy fix. IIRC the shifter linkage is not adjustable.

 

I would agree if the vacuum leak is causing a high idle that will compound other minor causes that may be fine otherwise. I can also confirm no adjustment on a '90 shift linkage or clutch other than pedal dead-play.

But a worn or damaged clutch fork, release bearing or pilot bearing could add spin to the input shaft while the clutch is released. Compare with engine running and with engine off. Shifting to 1st is significantly easier with the engine off if one or more of these is an issue. A shifter/linkage problem would be a problem for more than one gear typically.

 

Shifter/cables have several rubber/plastic bushings in the assembly.
On the cable ends those bushes may wear out and need replacing, options are stock, poly, delrin, or spherical.
Fore/aft shifter cable ties directly into shifter handle base. Lateral cable ties into a plastic tower off to the side of the shifter assembly. Verify that isn't damaged before buying parts.
There are also bushings that mount the shifter but unlikely a problem unless the whole shifter assembly is moving around.

Clutch is hydraulic actuated, there is a master cylinder next to/under the brake booster and the slave is bolted to the side of the trans. No real adjustment other than initial installation clevis at the pedal.

 

So shifting to 1st is difficult with the car on or off. I have drove it and while I can shift to 2nd and 3rd with ease and no issues at all. Yeah the vacuum leak is definitely something I need to fix. But when the car is off I still have a hard time to shift into 1st but the rest of the gears work perfectly fine. Had other people test it and they all said 1st is the issue and well just trying to figure it out. I tried to look for bushings for the linkage but having a hard time finding them. Orielly and Autozone don’t sell them

 

Also I already replaced the master and slave cylinder for the clutch and bled them. Made sure the fluid is topped off. I was told that starting in 2nd is easier just needs to have the rpm’s higher to do so.

 

So I took this video and there is some play in one of the cables. No play in the other one that has some oil on it. Like I said before some bad oil leaks that I had to fix before getting it running

 

This is me shifting from 1st to 2nd and back and forth. It definitely feels a lot better than it did before. Thankfully I got the fluid change since it was completed black. But in the end you see where is a bit difficult to shift into 1st. 2nd is smooth with no issues at all