This just happened yesterday. My '88 f150 with this manual tranny got real loose all of the sudden when trying to shift gears.
It has a lot of play in it which it never had before. Can hardly find the gears its so bad. I looked under the shift boot and unbolted the top of the tansmission but dont see anything wrong. There was a thin metal o ring type shim that was broken and some other ones that looked weird. They just seem to sit there. There must be some sort of shim or something that tightens this up. Something broke but I dont know what.Any help would be great. Need to drive this truck to work daily and cant afford to take it to a tranny shop.

 

I have the same problem, I can't shift into 3rd and 4th without pushing really hard. sometimes, but not always, it will grind just a little while falling into 4th. I know the bushing around the shifter is gone, but you can't buy the bushing, ford will only sell the whole shifter, $100+ and there seem to be no aftermarket shifters for this tranny... but anyway, I don't believe the shifter is the whole problem... any ideas?