I have a 98 mustang 3.8! it has started popping out of 1st gear. To me, it seems that it's not going all the way into the gear. If I put it in 2nd then push it quickly into 1st, it stays in gear most of the time. But, it still is very difficult to get in gear. Could it be a bad shifter? shifter fork? Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I need to fix it this weekend.

 

Bring it to a shop and get a proper diagnosis. My bed would be the clutch or throwout bearing. Shift fork could be worn too.

 

First of all, thanks for the reply. I thought it'd be the shifter arm because it "feels" loose when you go to first. when you push in the clutch and put in any other gear, you can hear the obvious gear change. however, when you put it in first and second, it just feel like there is not resistance. does that make sense?

 

The shifter isn't very complex. The only problem the shifter itself can have is if the bolts that holds the upper half to the lower half comes lose. The lower half of the shifter is simply a ball that goes into a socket in the upper part of the transmission. That socket swivels and moves forward or backwards to get the car into the correct gear.

This write up has a lot of pics, you'll see what I'm talking about. Not much to fail unless that shaft inside the transmission the shifter connects to is having problems.

http://www.mustangworld.com/ourpics/fcar/shift1.htm