2 years later, I have to adjust the linkage again. I'm pretty sure that adjusting it is to compensate for worn components: bushings and cable linkage. Basically did the same adjustment and it is better, not great. Next summer, I'll replace the cables and bushings, in the meantime, I'll collect the replacement parts. As a side note, shifting is more difficult when the car is cold versus when it's warm, it shifts fine. There was a Ford tech bulletin that came out that now recommends synthetic 5W20 oil for all Cougar manual shift transmission rather then the Ford product. I replaced the tranny fluid with synthetic 5W20 and will see if it helps. This is a picture of the adjustments at the transmission which is missing from the original post: