Shift went "mushy" (bad description)

I've got a 6 speed manual, 2002 911 with a Numeric shifter and original shift cables. I was driving the car, idling through a little town at 30 mph in 2nd gear, and when the speed limit changed up to 50 on a wide open road with no traffic, I very rapidly accelerated, shifting into third, and accelerating up to near redline RPMs and up to a brisk pace a bit beyond the posted limit. As I shifted up into third, the shift felt uncharacteristically mushy. Not the crisp shift I've become accustomed to. The numeric is usually anschutz rifle, bolt action crisp, snik, snik into clean/tight gear changes. Now it is a bit less so - the 1-3-5 side (toward the front of the car) feels more mushy (for lack of a better term). The shift lever can be pushed forward beyond the natural stoping point, as if it were pushing against a spring. It still shifts into all gears properly, and there are no weird noises or odd behaviors in the way it goes into gear or anything. The shifts are there, but just mushy... I wonder if the transaxle has moved, or the cables are moved at the transmission end (they are safety wired, so that would be unusual). Maybe shifted backward... I popped the shift boot off and looked around - nothing looks out of place on a quick look. The car is new to me this winter, 104K miles, I've never changed the motor mounts or transmission mount, but the engine was replaced by Porsche with an AT coded engine 30K ago and the transmission was replaced 20K miles ago, so it would seem silly not to have replaced them at that time. I will look at the service receipts to verify. I have a set of Numeric cables, a pair of 80A motor mounts and an 80A transmission mount on the shelf. I can throw them all on, but I don't want to just throw parts at it. I'd like to understand what changed first. Any insight, thoughts, speculation, commentary?

It sounds like the two jamb nuts that hold the cable in place at the bottom of the shifter base may have slipped out of their slot...

That sure sounds like the cable end has come loose from the transmission, but your safety wire might still be holding it together slightly. A quick look underneath should confirm or rule that out.

Also, double check the adjustment bolt on the shifter that is also the pivot point. I had the nut of that back off, and the bolt was slowly working itself out, and the shifting was mushy. This was happening when I was on the track. The entire unit almost came off in my hand. It was no problem to reinstall, and I added a little loctite.

Thank you all for the ideas. I pulled it apart, and found the culprit. There is a plastic cup around the shifter cable that holds the cable to the cable end, and it was broken. It caused the cable to have movement beyond the range that it should normally should go. The firm shift into 3rd must've popped it loose. The tab and slot arrangement that held it together separated. Unfortunately, it was not possible to just snap the cap into the tabs, since the plastic around the slots is broken in several areas. It appears as though there may have been some preexisting damage on the plastic around the slots, but who knows. Old car, many owners, etc. The quick but temporary fix was a couple of safety wires, but I'll swap in the heavy duty Numeric cables the next time I have it on the lift. Thanks for the help everyone. A search after the fact found this post ( https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...l#post15161760 ) looks like I am not the first to see this, nor will I probably be the last.

Ahhhh... There you go! I was thinking of the Numeric cables - they don't use those plastic ends with the clips - all threaded steel with big flat nuts. While it's a bit of a PITA I wholeheartedly endorse installing the Numeric Cables. They feel even better/more precise than the stock cables. Use plenty of "lube" when installing the "cable bung" where the cables pass through the floor into the cabin... Good luck