I had this happen twice, both during massive rain downpours. i shift into 5th. no problem. im comin to a light, i throw the clutch in. move the stick down to the horizontal line on the H. i let go of the stick. normally, there is some springing action that moves it back to the center of the H, but this time it was very slow motion. as if the grease on the stick had gotten heavy. did the coolness of the rain splash up, cooling the exhaust pipe, cooling the stick, or what? this hasnt happed in like a week,. happend last week twice, and never before. i have a 96 civic lx sedan, engine d16y7, tranny s40 5 speed manual, and a aluminum short throw shifter, however the short throw never gave me problems before. ball bearings are good on it.

 

I had this same problem happen to me when it would rain and i would go through puddles. Sorry i cannot help but the removal of the short shifter and the re installation of the stock shifter cured the problem for me. It seemed like the exhaust pipe would hug up closer to the chassis, thus rubbing on the short shifter.