Exactly what the title says. I'm wondering what gear, without moving the shifter left or right, should be right in front of neutral in a 4 speed

Nothing. The stick should center itself in the middle of the shift pattern.

[This message has been edited by Mike in Sydney (edited 10-12-2020).]

3rd gear would be straight ahead.

The first time I drove a 4-speed Fiero, this confused me, as I was used to:
1 3 5
2 4 R

In this typical 5-speed pattern, the shifter self-centers to the middle, so I (wrongly) assumed that the same would occur in a 4-speed Fiero.

Instead, on the 4-speed Fiero, the shifter self-centers all the way to the far right, and not the middle of the pattern.

To access Reverse, you gotta bitchslap the shifter over to the left quite hard, to get past "the wall".

The first time I drove a 4-speed Fiero, it took me a bunch of fumbling around to figure how to back it up from a parking spot...

Every manual Fiero I've ever owned sat at the 3/4 gate. That applies to the 4-speed Muncie, the 5-speed Isuzu and the 5-speed Getrag. With the trans in Neutral, pushing only straight forward should engage 3rd gear/

quote Originally posted by Mike in Sydney: Nothing. The stick should center itself in the middle of the shift pattern.

Sick. My linkage was falling apart when I got it. It's directly behind third right now.

Most 4 speeds are:

code:

---

1   3
|-N-| <-- this section is all N
2   4

---

Neutral can be "loaded" to center or either side unless you're actually pushing thru it to shift to next gear.
How wide N is between 1-2 and 3-4 depend mostly on shifter design in many vehicles. In case in shifter in the trans like many RWD cars uses is much harder to change this.
H pattern can be mod'ed at factory, after, or just wear for 2 and 3 gates as people push sideways and up/down to make 2-3 shift. IOW can be made or worn to have more like this:

code:

---

1   3
|  /|
|-N-| <-- this section is all N
|/  |
2   4

---

R can be any side of N and push up/down depending on brand/model/year for a given vehicle.
Many are next to 1 but not all.
Many old cars don't have much or any guard/warding to fight shifting to R. In old cars this guard may have worn or is dirty and doesn't work now. (Is why Many Race Org's require Positive full lock to prevent shifting to R, or P for auto trans cars.)

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Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave

[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 10-13-2020).]