Serious short shifter problems, it broke in half and stock one wont work

well last night i went to my friends house and we were gonna go drive around, 2nd stopsign after her house i turn right, in 1st gear, not even 3000rpm i shift into 2nd and it wont go so i pull a little bit then i hear this madddd grinding noise then the shifter goes loose, it flaps all around. i pull over and am like shit wtf am i going to do now. then i notice that the car is in 2nd gear so i just do a u-turn and go back to her house. i pull my hand up and the shifter from above the ball socket came up.

so i stay the night at her house and drive home on the backroads (25-35mph speed limits cuz im stuck in 2nd gear) and pull into my driveway, jack the car up, undo the exhaust, undo the shift linkage etc. take out the bottom half of the broken shifter and put my stock one back in. i get in the car and move the shifter around and it seems way high up (like 4th is where neutral usually is) so i figure that i put it in backwards and get under the car and flip it around before i bolt everything up.

after bolting everything back up i go on a test drive and i can barely get it into 3rd (hella grinded mostly) and going into reverse i would grind. then i bust down the shift boot and realize that its backwards. get back home, jack up the car, flip the shifter around from underneath and bolt everything back up.

now i can drive but 3rd requires some force to get into and the shifter is wayyyyy far up. 4th looks like neutral, neutral looks like 3rd. reverse looks like 5th.

has this happened to anyone else?

well, the bolt has fallen out and then in second I could shift to every gear but it stayed in secohnd, but this sounds totally different, but even if the linkage is positioned backwards, it would still rock side to side and rotate the linkage and pivot forwards and backward and work. but the grinding sounds like you got a problem woith the master cylindewr, my su=ggestion is fill it up if its low, and bleed the clutch, but dont let the resorvoir go empty while you are bleeding it, keep checking it and adding when needed. and if that doesnt ficx the grinding/forceful shifting i dont know.

only grinds into reverse, which it did half the time before this incident anyway so now i just put it in reverse before i put the car on then start it.

where is the master cylinder? under hood the only recepticles for fluid that i see are:

oil
power steering
windshield washer fluid
ABS fluid
brake fluid
antifreeze

OMG im dumb, forgot you got cable

so try tightening up the cable a bit maybe,

how much play do you have at the top of the pedal. where does it engage off the floor?

i have it adjusted right at the bottom. the pedal sits way close to the floor so i can just stomp it right in and out for quick shifting. its like an inch from the floor. i tried adjusting it though, doesnt make a difference. its something with the linkage im sure.

ummmm, having the pedal right at the floor only lets you push the pedal like an inch which wont fully disengage the clutch, which is where your problems coming from Im betting on that. adjust it to where you have a full pedal like normal and see if it still grinds into reverse and hard to shift.

ive had 2 integras and it works to have it way at the floor like that... couple of my friends do it too. its to where it can fully disengage but theres no extra play in it. if it wasnt fully disengaged wouldnt it grind in all gears?

well, when you disengage the clutch and shift the synchros get the sahfts i think spinning at same gear before the next gear is selected, so if it isnt disengaged all the way themn it seems like maybe it just makes the synchros work harder, and you redline 1st and 2nd more than 3rd/4th/5th, so then that would be why 3rd might be harder thsan other gears cuz theyve worn more than others and reverse isnt really synchronised I dont think, if you are rolling at all it grinds, but shouldnt if the clutch is disengaging all the way. I dont know, maybe its fine, but just sems to me if you ony needed a inch or 2 of pedla they'd put em out of the factory like that.

highest rpm ive ever gotten my car up to was 6400... im waiting to really build it up before i take it to the track. i dont know about the previous owner but he was like 60 years old so i dont think he was redlining any gears :p

i tried putting clutch pedal all the way at the top and it still does it. yea reverse is a lame gear i dont like it, its so hard to get it in without grinding on any car.. and ive driven like 5 stick shift cars and its the same thing every time.

if you come to a complete stop reverse goes in fine, and if not, just put it in first and barely let the clutch grab then shift to reverse. but as to your problem i guess im not gonna be any help