i have a 2002 eclipse gt manual and my trany is fine and when you have the shifter in nuetral it should center itself out andnot be so stiff i also have checked the bolts and made sure that they were not to tight and everything else that i checked seems to be ok

 

3gs have stiff shifters its not like older MT cars where they used to be spongey the 3G is pretty firm in gear and out.

 

Maybe try greasing things up a little

 

you might need new shifter cables/bushings. mine had the same problem and i changed my cables out and it feels 10x better now and a lot easier to move around