[1.2gees]

The reason why a bad motor mount would cause hard shifting is because the whole transaxle, torque tube, and engine are suspended off the car. Basically, that transaxle has two rubber mounts to the chasis, and to the torque tube. It's extremely easy to move around when the torque tube is disconnected. Motor mounts are much sturdier than transaxle mounts, and a collapsed one would turn the whole assy, to that side. Usually the exaust side goes bad, so the entire engine/torque tube/transaxle assy will turn to the right (viewed from in front of the car, counter-clock).

Now since the shifter linkage is solidly mounted to the transaxle at the end, but uses the (non twisting) chasis as it's pivoting point, it's easy to see that a bad motor mount could indeed make shifting feel messy.

Second gear being to the left from inside the car, I can see how this would be, but I'd think it would affect shifting into all gears, at least to 1st, as well as 2nd...

I hope this clarifies things a bit,
Ahmet

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It's all the driver...