I agree, most likely its an issue with the stick shift mechanism itself or bushings.

You can verify there are no problems with the tranny by going underneath, popping the linkage arms off, and manually cycling the shift arms back and forth on the case itself.

While you are down there, make sure your shift linkage bushings are all good, this can also cause problems, and these are most likely to wear out of all the components in question. The shifter mechanism relys on the transmission to provide the springyness to pop itself back out of gear. If the bushings are worn, the total travel of the transmission housing lever may not correlate to the total travel of the shifter mechanism, leaving it partially referenced in the wrong position, which may also be causing your trouble getting it to move over.

An example would be pushing an object with your finger vs pushing an object with your finger and a piece of foam between it and the object. The same force applied in both circumstances would equal less distance traveled for the object in the second scenario. The rubber bushings are not supposed to allow too much movement.

If they all move easily and without issue, and all the bushings are good, reconnect the arms, and verify there is not hangup on the arms like walgamuth said. (this is most easily done by forcing an uncooperative female to sit in the driver seat and run it through the gear pattern while you inspect from underneath)

If they are binding, it might be the issue, but its unlikely. Next step would be to look into the shifter.

The shift mechanism itself is the most amazingly complex collection of washers, springs, and spring washers. I recommend if you pull this out and disassemble it, that you take detailed pictures of how it goes together as you inspect for issues. Also, they have a tendency to fly all over creation when you first pull things apart, so make sure of each spring washer's orientation before diving in. All the springs put enough pressure on it that it is a huge PITA to put back together as well.

Im not exactly sure on the 5-speed, but on the 4-speed mechanism with reverse to the left, the reverse lockout mechanism is inside the handle shaft low, and there is a rubber bushing that frequently tears, which basically messes up the lockout and means you can move it over into reverse without pulling fully up.

There is a central shaft in this mechanism that all the shift levers are turning on, and it looks kind of like a spool valve with pegs on it to move different levers in different ways sequentially as you move through the gears. There could be some hangup in this mechanism that may not be allowing you to disengage one lever, while trying to move to another lever.

Heres a diagram of one of the lever mechanisms, don't know if it applies, but you get the idea of just how many parts one of these things has.

Like Walgamuth was saying, there is not much to go wrong in this thing, even though its complex, and if there are no other obvious causes, it could be an issue of lubrication first and foremost. I had one that was jammed with dog hair, and needed a good cleaning.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.