Strange problem started this summer. After the car gets hot and I've driven some distance 20 miles or so, the shifter becomes difficult to move left and right.

Normally when you slap it to the left, it will immediately spring back to its 'center' position. However I've seen that when the car is hot, it will no longer spring back, and will stay in the leftmost position. After the car cools off, it works normally again.

Any clues on where to even look for this problem? I wouldnt be surprised if my original shifter cables are worn, but why would this be only a problem after driving a while? If its an issue with the Tranny itself, what part might be bad??

To date, I haven't really had any issues with putting the car in gear, or shifting out of any gear, other than it takes extra effort to move the shifter. The problem happens regardless of the clutch being in or out. And I don't have any issues with gears grinding.

Puzzled.

Likely the shift cable getting hot and binding up. Some people have been able to lube them by pulling a vacuum on one end and sucking up oil. Larry

I've lubed up the cables but that didn't seem to change anything. I still am seeing the selector cable get hard to move after about 20 minutes of driving. The odd thing is if I have the car off for about 5 minutes, the cables will free up again.
Things wouldn't have cooled off in only 5 minutes. So I am really stumped on this. Any other ideas ??

quote Originally posted by edfiero: Things wouldn't have cooled off in only 5 minutes.

Yes, they could... check to see how close the cables are to exhaust parts.