Jesus, it seems like I'm all over this place lately. I wish it were under different circumstances, but it seems every day driving this car is another adventure in mechanical concepts! Anyways, in case you don't know, the car is a 94 EX manual.
So today on my way home from work, I was merging off the highway. I downshifted (as always) to 4th, but there was some traffic merging so I went ahead to 3rd. I should add that these were slightly "spirited" downshifts, with rev-matching and all that jazz, and the downshift to 3rd could have been smnoother. So when I went to shift back to 4th, the shifter wouldn't release. I had clutch pressure, no pedal on the floor or anything like that. The car just wouldn't come out of gear. I ended up forcing it out and parking on the shoulder. I checked the fluid, made sure there were no obvious signs of leaks at the master/slave. Got back in the car and went through every gear and everything was fine. I took off and came home without any further issue (another 10 miles or so).
I've never had a car that did that... Everything seems fine mechanically, but something was definitely up. Any thoughts?

 

Downshifting routinely to slow down is expensive compared to using the brakes. Daily driving, brake as needed for traffic, then when it is time to accelerate again, choose the proper gear and go.

You can bend the shafts in the transmission with abusive driving, which makes shifting hard, but that would be more permanent.

Clutch working or not you should always be able to let off the gas and push the shifter into neutral. Makes it seem more of a transmission problem.

 

I've actually driven my car completely without the clutch (had a pinched nerve in my back, couldn't push it without intense pain). I'm not saying it's the greatest idea, but I never had a grind situation or had the shifter stick. Just clean rpm based shifts without the clutch. If it was stuck in third as you stated and you had to force it out then I agree with mk378 that it's most likely mechanical inside the transmission.

-Amp

 

In the next few weeks I'll have the trans out anyways for a noisy main shaft bearing, so I'll do some checking around and see what I find.

 

Doesn't sound like a clutch issue to me either.

Could it be that the shift linkage is just binding up? I would maybe inspect that first to see if anything jumps out...

 

The clutch is still fine, so I think I agree with you guys... This morning, after I had been driving about 10 minutes, I hit a stop light and I had to force almost every gear. While sitting in neutral with the clutch out, the main bearing makes noise, but with the clutch pedal all the way to the floor, I could hear some noise coming from the throwout bearing. Looks like this "project" is going to start getting expensive.

 

You should stop driving it you're causing further damage.

 

I plan to. Just have to get home. I'll pop the plug on the transmission and see how the fluid looks. I've got parts coming for a partial rebuild. So I'll park the car and gather some ****.