My '94 5 speed has a pretty sloppy shifter, and some gears can be a bear (especially reverse) to shift into. Clutch is fine and fully disengaging.

Is there any adjustment on the shift linkage or cables? Haynes does not show any.

Thanks!

Before going deeply into the linkage, have you verified that the engine mounts are ok? On more than 1 manual trans car I have seen a change in the linkage operation after the engine/trans shifted position a little due to a loose mount. If this is a problem and you rectify it, you will then be able to get a better sense of the condition of the shift linkage.

No I haven't yet...what's the best way?

-reposting because the first was for some reason deleted-

I didn't notice any adjustment mechanism on the transmission end of the shifter cables. I've never checked the shifter end of things. I did replace the little bushings between the cables and the selector on the transmission. They are rubber, sort of like a tiny version of the upper engine mount that connects to the firewall. They were cracked and collapsed. I had access to a machine shop at the time so I made my own out of Delrin. That really tightened things up.

To access the cable connections, remove the airbox and intake accordian tube. They're right under there.

-Will
--
850 / Mini

My bushings are tired, but not awful. They're not available except with the cables. Looking through the bins at the harware store offered no reasonable replacements either.

Still got access to the machine shop?

whoops, dup post.

Boy do I wish I still did! It was a student shop at Penn State. I worked there as a teaching assistant while I was in school so we had pretty much free reign over the place, including materials. I even made my own wedding ring out of titanium -while I was on the clock no less!

Take some measurements and sketch something up. Shop it around at the local machine shops. Production places won't want to be bothered, but a local job shop might do it if you provide material. Delrin, Nylon, brass it's all soft and easy to machine so any monkey could knock them out with 15 minutes on a lathe.

--Will
--
850 / Mini

I didn't notice any adjustment mechanism on the transmission end of the shifter cables. I've never checked the shifter end of things. I did replace the little bushings between the cables and the selector on the transmission. They are rubber, sort of like a tiny version of the upper engine mount that connects to the firewall. They were cracked and collapsed. I had access to a machine shop at the time so I made my own out of Delrin. That really tightened things up.

-Will
--
850 / Mini