I cant shift into any of those gears and the shifter feels very sloppy and just slides into place without hitting a gear. The linkage is fine from the shifter to the tranny, but where the linkage hooks to the tranny, one bushing has some type of liquid on it, like it exploded or something. What the hell is going on??!!??!!??!!

HEy it's your linkage....I'm sure. My boy drove my car and did the same thing you did...He's used to the mustangs shifter nice and tight our is light he fcked it up good.

i checked all the linkage, the cables move everything just fine, but i did find a piece of metal, silver and shaped like a C that broke off..any help?

that peice is a clip the holding the shifter cable housing on the tranny bracket so you can shift....pull your battery and look at the shifter cables were they are attached to the tranny via a bracket and ull see that clip popped off one of them...

Yep. Shifter cable horseshoe clips. I have 2 extras, brand new. You can have them if you give me a couple of bucks to ship them.