2001 Jetta shifting adjustment problem

I am having the strangest problem with my 6 speed trans. It is as if there is an adjustment sliding some where. If I shift forward sometimes it will not reach the gear before shifter travel runs out. When this happens I have to shift into a lower gear and pull back a little after the lower gear is engaged and it will slide back a bit. After this it will easily go into the forward gears but if I don’t do it gently it will slide out of range again. Has anyone ever had this issue? Am I explaining this adequately?

Thanks to all

It sounds like ashifter cable probllem. Can you see if anything is loose or broken?

This just started happening yesterday so I haven’t taken anything apart yet. I was going to start by opening the gear shift consol area and see what I could find. I can feel what I think is going on but I guess until I open it I won’t know for sure. Are there any exploded diagrams that will show what is going on in there? -BT

Ok I figured it out! After removing the exhaust and all of that and getting a look at the linkage I found that the intermittent problems I was having with the shifting turned out to be a faulty shift cable. The connector was slipping off the cable. On the shift cables there is an end piece that connects to the cable that has an eyelet that will clamp onto the ball at the end of the shifter. Well this piece is crimped onto the cable and it slipped off. When I would shift into 1st 3rd 5th reverse the cable would get pulled and slip out. After I shifted into 2nd or 4th it would shove back in and grab for a short time. Man was I relieved to find that out but the price for the cable was $165