Just as i suspected. I gutta replace the spring at one of the linkage joints. Looks like it rusted off a decade ago. Thats why everytime i shift you hear a big CLUNK. And i have to shift with precision or else it'll go into one of the neighboring gears. I've never noticed it cause its been like that forever but people have told me something was odd about it. Maybe my local hardware store will have a spring sufficient for the task.

So what your looking at is some white plastic washer dangling around. You can even see remnants of the spring.
http://i41.tinypic.com/akzz95.jpg