gear shift 'slop' in 96 Cabrio?

How do I eliminate some front-back 'slop' in the shifter lever in a 96 Cabrio It's got a 5 spd trans, 62k miles and otherwise runs great.

It's got little or no resistance when moving the shift lever front to back. One can feel that it is engaging the gear and the neutral 'gate area' is perceptable. Side-to-side has a reasonable amount of tension and the downward spring for reverse works fine. All the gears gate properly and shifting itself is smooth. It just seems like some sort of spring or other tensioning mechanism has crapped out.

I've replaced the 'gymbal-like' thing underneath the shift lever before (80 Scirocco) but that was to correct the loss of reverse return spring tension. Likewise the ball-and-socket links on a 88 Jetta but that was to correct loss of shifting entirely. The symptom here is different than those and the mechanism looks a little different than I remember.

Any tips on which parts to replace?

-Bill Kearney

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wkearney99
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