T5 woes...

[Bigfatts]

My LX has a Ford Racing T5 in it with a Ripper short throw. Dual Friction clutch. The T5 has about 5k on it.

So I am slowing down to stop at a light and go to pull the shifter out of 5th and it won't budge. Yes, I'm on the clutch. I tug a little harder and it comes out of gear but then it was like it was stuck between gears. Wouldn't move side to side or forward/back. Push it a little harder and it moves. Put it in 1st and it goes (I was sitting in the middle of an intersection by now.) Ok so it shifted fine but on the left side (1st-3rd gear) the shifter would not spring back to center when I released it. It would just stay where it was if I let it go and it wasn't in gear. If I moved it over towards 5th it would spring back just fine.

I was almost home when the same thing happenned again. The car wouldn't come out of 5th. Did the same thing, tugged on it til it came free and then it was fine. The shifter would spring back from wherever I let it go. It has stuck in 5th one time since but has been fine otherwise. This transmission has given me 0 problems before this. No quirks, no slippage, nothing.

My brother says maybe a spring got bound in the shifter. What do you guys think?

[gdniel]

I had a bad shifter, same exact problem as you describe, stuck in 5th sometimes. I replaced the shifter and the problem never happened again.