So where to begin. Well i guess i should tell you the history of this car. I bought it of good old Craigslist about a year ago. I realised it had a few issues then, but i really didn't have a clue to the severity. When i use reverse, it has probably a 25% chance of somethung that resembles the shift linkage being broken. Reverse acts like second gear, and so does neutral. all other gears are lost, ie being inaccessible. Well i took it to the yocal local mechanic, linkage repair job. It never fixed the problem. Niw its been like 10 times i had to go back to repair the same damn thing. Repair is free of course, but its still very annoying driving 25 miles in second to leave it there for a few days. Now the previous owner mentioned that he had it narrowed down to the motor mounts. He wasn't positive on which one it was. Now does that sound like a motor mount issue? or a new tranny. And..to complicate thungs..i don't know what transmission i have. the car is 98, so it would ofcourse be the Isuzu. But he had the transmission replaced about 2 years ago. he didn't have the papers from the shop. he said it was replaced with the getrag. now i already had the slave cylinder blow out. If he did replace it with the getrag, is it feasible that he never replaced clutch, cylinder flywheel etc? I noticed after my new slave cylinder, it eats clutch fluid.. going out again? And one more thing. The car lights flicker, indicating a bad alternator. Voltage readings are good though. Do you think it could be belt+tensioner? Or maybe a bad pully? i did the belt and pully test with a spray bottle of water..no difference. it idles super rough, like it wants to die. it never has once on me, but i can't help being paranoid. Where should i start with that also? thanks for taking the time to read this..very lengthy haha

Wow. Sounds like this car is a disaster.

Personally, I'd be looking for another car, but if you want to, or need to, just keep this one and put the time in it...

1) the motor mounts are not the problem with the transmission. sounds to me like the transmission is junk
2) if you post a pic of the shift mechanism on top of the transmission, I can tell you if it's a getrag or Isuzu. Also, the shifter inside the car will be different.
3) if you just replaced the slave, and it's leaking, you have a few possible problems, including a bad install, a bad connection with the fluid line, a bad line, etc.
4) you probably have an electrical problem, most likely a bad ground somewhere.
5) sounds like it needs a good tune-up

I took a few pics but i can't figure out how to post them from my phone :/ But i definitely know the shifter is different from my other cavy. i have a 2001 5speed. i would have used it as a reference earlier but it was in the shop. fuel pump on that one. the shifter in the 98 is grey/silver metal with a clear plastic head type. Idk if its stock because its alot smaller and shorter than the 01's tall, fat and black shifter. Also reverse doesn't have a lock, which i thought was weird. but i guess its normal. The trans in each car looked diffrrent too. My 01s was a bit longer, flat and had symmetrical rectangle grooves. 98's was just short, with a hydraulic thing on it instead of just being flat like the other. i probably did a pretty @#$%# job of explaining this. If its a crap @#$ trans i will just deal with the reverse prob. my wiring/electrical issue and everything else is more worrysome than this, unless this manifests into a huge issue. which is what usually happens

OK, well if your trans definitely looks different than the one in your 01, it's got to be the Isuzu, unless someone put an NVG out of an older Quad 4 car into it, but I'm thinking that's highly unlikely.