One of the first things I did to my GLHS after purchase in 04 was to convert the shift linkage to heim joints. This turned out great except periodically the shifter has been sticky shifting out of 5th - going into 5th it is fine. A little annoying, but with all the other stuff I had yet to do on the car I didn't worry about it. Now that stuff is all done and I'm trying to iron out any remaining little issues, I drove the car this week and it seemed a little worse so last night I took some time to investigate the issue.

The first thing I did was make sure the gear selector adjustment was correct. I flipped the pin on top of the transmission, lined up the mark on the gear selector and shifter, and torqued to spec. I lubricated the gear selector too while it was out of the shift tube. This helped a little bit but didn't 100% solve the problem.

After that I hit all the heim joints with spray silicone lubricant. Then the problem went away. However, it sat for a few hours it seem to get a little sticky again just when coming out of 5th.

I thought heim joints were supposed to be dry. Should I lubricate them to resolve this issue? If so, what would be best? It seems like there is just enough bind to cause an issue now and then.

Any input appreciated.