The Project Pad

Weird issue has cropped up in my EDU 6 gang in the past few weeks where i can engage 1st and 2nd gear but there is a good inch or two of play back towards center. 3rd - 4th and 5th 6th are fine as well as reverse... i verified that the play is in the transmission and not in the linkage. So my first thought is the shift detent had failed in some way so i removed that and checked /replaced ... while removed i felt nothing out of the ordinary through the shift detent hole for 1/2.

Anybody ever experienced this before?