Funny thing in a '02 Ford Explorer Sport 5-speed manual transmission

[lidation]

Just looked at a '02 Ford Explorer Sport, 5-speed. 65K miles.
It drives pretty fine.

But when you put the shifter into any gear, say, 3rd gear, you can still wiggle the shifter lever 5 inches left to right. I have driven many other manual cars, like 3000GT, RX-7, BMW 3-series, but I have never met similar things. I thought that when you put the shifter into a gear, you can barely wiggle it.

I just don't know why this gear shifter could have that much free play even in gear. How could it be.

Is it normal?

[shorod]

Five inches of play, really? Keep in mind that the cars you mention have a much shorter shift lever, so if you translate the amount of play in those shift levers to the end of a lever 5 times as long (or longer), it probably comes out about equal. I'd say 5 inches of slop is not normal though.

-Rod