Civic96LX

I got a 96 civic lx, D16Y7 engine with a S40 tranny. Changed fluid a month or 2 ago, used Honda MTF. It rained like hell yesterday, and I noticed, that when I shifter out of 5th into neutral, I moved the stick down, but when it usually "springs" back to the middle from the right side, it did so very slowly. Like it got heavy. Did all the moisture affect that molybdenum grease for the ball joint on the shift stick? i do have a short throw shifter, had it for a year, this has never happened before, but happened again today for a lil bit, again when it poured. i live in ATL, hot and humid, but was cooler with all this massive rain. I torqued the tranny bolts myself to the specs in my helms manual, and have seen no leak. id moisture enter the tranny from tha breather on top? i mean i had been driving for a half hour, and moisture would have evaporated from the heat, right? shift stick was fairly cool when this happened.