GT4 shifter getting stiffer in the east west movement

Probably at the gearbox connection, however you may be best just removing the chrome gate and looking to see if anything is stuck in the gear lever housing, it's also been known that the chrome gate can get out of position and cause issues (mainly getting the car into reverse).......do the simple checks first before you get into re-aligning the selector forks

 

Anthony as Andrew said but if you can visually see that nothing is in the gear shift chrome gate hole then under the car there is a bolt behind the shift shaft seal boot that you can undo and take out so you can verify whether the stiffness is coming from the gear lever/shaft mechanism or inside the gearbox itself

 

There is also a plug in the side of the shifter housing, that compresses against a spring to give stiffness in the sidways movement of the shifter.

You might have some binding issue there as well.

 

You might try lubricating the shifter box. Mine used to squeak & was quite stiff. The problem is unlikely to be at the transmission end.

Gerrit

 

I removed most of my center console and disconnected the shifter rod. Once I had the shifter and the box assembly out of the car I cleaned off all of the old hardened grease and relube it. It works great now. This was on my 78 308.

 

Everything is reachable from above. I would try just taking the gate off and cleaning the box out. Then lubricate. If that works, great. Else you will have to remove the console to get at the box. You can then disconnect and remove the box if you want. The gate is self itself is self aligning due to size of screw holes and the counter sunk screws.

Gerrit

 

I had the exact same problem a few years ago. I took my shifter apart and lubed that spring-loaded plunger on the side (which regulates this side to side movement)... Made a world of difference, it is butter-smooth now.

Warning: the spring assembly (last photo) which controls the up-down movement (to get into the "Reverse" slot), has a plastic ball joint. Do not try to take this ball joint off to clean! It breaks!! Ask me how I know!!!
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The adjustment for the fore-aft position of the shift lever is controlled/set by the threaded coupling (w/lock nut IIRC) near where the shift shaft enters the front of the engine crankcase ("under" the car, not inside the passenger cabin). The tricky part is that that same threaded coupling also controls the left-right position of the shift lever -- make some temporary reference marks on each of the ends so you can keep the rotational phasing of the ends the same and just tweak the length as needed.