I think my shifter linkage broke or froze up?

[tom5170]

95 sunfire GT 5 speed manual transmission, 179,xxx miles.

I was driving through a residential neighborhood coming up to a stop sign so I clutched in, put it in first, and coasted to the stop sign. I still had my hand on the shifter while stopped and I noticed it moved freely up and down almost as if the linkage was broken. It wouldn't go side to side to put it in neutral and it stayed in first gear. It still goes up and down but not side to side. When I detach the cable that moves it side to side from the shifter, the shifter will move freely side to side. The linkage that moves it up and down is still attached and moving at the shifter, and it moves on the shifter linkage on the transmission. But its this cable that moves it side to side that seems to be stuck or frozen (I don't know if this is normal or not). When I detach this cable, and pull it with my hands, it maybe moves 1/4 of an inch outward and back, but it doesn't move any more than that. It seems stuck or frozen. I did notice that while I was driving it and trying to shift gears once in a while, the gears would sort of grind, and I'd have to take it out of gear, move it side to side a little, and then put it in the gear I wanted for it to go into gear smoothly. My friend that was with me said I might've lost the linkage mount, or it could be a bad cable - it's just a guess, we didn't look underneath yet. Have you ever heard of this sort of problem before?

 

[melsg5]

It is not uncommon to have a shift cable that is 18 years old to freeze. You will have to determine if that is what is going on but based on your description it sounds correct.

 

[tom5170]

I took out part of the air filter and got a good view of the linkage since that's what was blocking my view. 1 cable was still attached to the linkage, and the other cable had came off. I put the cable back on, drove it around the block quite a few times, everything shifted smooth. Went out on a busy street, stopped at a stop light, took off, went to shift it into 2nd and the shifter was stuck when I went to move it into 2nd. I wiggled the shifter from side to side, back into 1st and then tried to go down to 2nd and it wouldn't, so I kind of yanked and the cable popped off the linkage again so I pulled to the side of the road, put the linkage back on and I couldn't get any gears, the shifter would go back and forth but not side to side. I finally messed with the linkage and got it to go into 1st and got home. In my driveway, I messed with it. I can feel it shift into 1,3,5 but I feel nothing when I move it back into 2,4,R, it actually just moves freely side to side when I move it down. Maybe I set the linkage cable in the wrong gear or something got mixed up?