I had a similar problem that came and went a couple of times before locking up for good.It turned out I need to replace this: http://www.gowesty.com/ec_view_details.php?id=3368&category_id=&category_parent_id=

> Date: Sun, 4 Oct 2015 09:55:16 -0700
> From: dn92610@GMAIL.COM
> Subject: shifting anomaly...
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> 
> 1990 Carat - manual trans..
> 
> the sifter base plastic hardware was replaced (all of it including the
> plastic ears) last year (9 to 12 months) - the shifting was good...
> 
> recently a weird thing appears (not all the time) - sometimes I have hard
> time to get out of 1st gear - it looks it get stuck in 1st and I have slow
> down re-clutch to get it out...
> 
> I looked at shifter base and everything is OK nothing broken.. the rear (at
> the trans) is OK too not sloppy
> 
> why? and what else to look at?
> 
> please help...
> 
> thanks in advance
> 
> dan