Steve--

Saw your note yesterday.

>I was driving along in my '85 with a manual 4sp. While in third gear I 
>came to a stop and to my horror I could not get it into neutral. After 
>frantically working the lever I was able to get into neutral and then 
>into first gear. While doing this I encountered great resistance and 
>the familiar H pattern went away only to be replaced by a nebulas stiff 
>mush. Yuck! Things seemed to settle into place again and I was able to 
>get home but 4th gear was not available. Later last night I was able to 
>get into 4th gear but only with great difficulty. What's going on?

I had somewhat similar shifting problems on my 86 GL a few years back.
Cleaning and lightly greasing the shift rod at the bushing in front of the
transmission cured it.  There is a similar bushing on the 86 behind the
gasoline tank.  I would also check the operation of the shifter mechanism
under the shift lever and going into the transmission.  There are joints
that can gunk up in these places.  

I would be certain everything the full length of the shifter assembly is
moving smoothly before worrying about anything inside the transmission.  The
external parts are far more vulnerable to wear (as well as easier to get
to).  In fact, it probably would be a good idea to clean and lightly
regrease all the moving parts in the shifter mechanism every 50-70K miles or
so as routine maintenance.   I recently did this on one of my other cars as
part of a clutch replacement job and was extremely surprised how much
difference it made in the feel and ease of shifting. 

                                John Foster