Reply to "3rd gear grind and pop out"

Well after a couple months I got the air ride shock leakage fixed so the car raises up & down now. So I am back to trying to find why I get some grinding when going into 3rd but no grind in any other gears. I measured the neutral point of the shifter and it measures 1&10/16" in front of the shifter stick and 1&12/16" to the rear of the shifter. So the neutral point is just slightly forward; but I checked my other two Panteras and the shifter neutral point is just slightly forward on those too with no shifting issues. Not saying that is right or not, but it is what it is on the other 2 cars too. Then I measured the black car shifter again in 2nd and in 3rd as shown below. Again, same result is that the shifter is forward just slightly. I don't find any loose linkages, but I only tried testing by hand and also visual (looking for any markings on the linkage gears).

Now back on the subject of adjusting the turnbuckle to get the shifter moved to the rear a little more in the gate so that it is dead center in the channel. Looking at the images below, from a mechanical perspective I just don't see how that would make any difference. If the theory is that maybe my shifting rod isn't pushing fully into the gearbox for 3rd gear, how would turning the turnbuckle to center the shifter make it go into the gearbox further? Based on the measurements with the car in 2nd and 3rd, it seems I have more room in the shifter gate going into third (in other words, the shifter gate isn't stopping it). Plus in my other rear facing gears that "push" into the gear box (1st & 5th) I don't have any grinding issues. Then if it was my slave, I would also think I would get grinding in other gears. I guess I could mark the turnbuckle as is and then take a shot at adjusting it, but I am just puzzled how that may make any difference anyway. To me it seems centering the shifter would amount to making the rod to the trans even shorter, and thus my push into third even shorter, no?

Black5SShifter by JanDaMan, on Flickr

This shows rod pulls forward when in second:
Black5SSecondGear by JanDaMan, on Flickr

This shows rod pushes in when in third:
Black5SThirdGear by JanDaMan, on Flickr