Shifter bar all of a sudden hitting engine mount bar..., Ideas? Options

[Millerwelds]

74 2.0 side shift

Daily driver. One day on my way home I could not get the shifter over to the 4th & 5th gear plane. Worked fine that morning. When I went to leave I started the car in neutral and when I pushed in the clutch I heard a significant pop. I thought the clutch cable tube may have popped and be blocking the shifter in the tunnel. Took all that apart and it appears to be fine both in the tunnel and at the firewall.

Engine and transmissions mounts appear to be correct and tight

Bushings and conical screws at both the firewall and transmission appear to be fine and tight. I had gone through all of them about 5 years ago.

Had the wife wiggle the shifter towards the 4/5 plane and can see the shift rod is hitting the top of the hole in the engine mount bar.

I don't see how the pop I heard when pushing in the clutch would correlate to the shift rod now hitting the engine bar.

I did drive it to work one more time since it happened. I stuck to the back roads where I did not need to go over 50 mph and everything else is working as normal as it always has.

Thoughts? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)