How's it going, folks?

Last night on my way back from the Blackhawks game I stopped to get gas. After pulling out of the gas station I was dismayed to find that my sportronic shifter was suddenly very very sticky. The stickiness in shifting from P-R-N-D was noticeably different but not too bad. However, the + and - manual spring-loaded side of the mechanism was incredibly sticky. Thankfully it still works.

What puzzles me is that this change was very sudden...and there's nothing I can think of that would have caused it, except for maybe a piece of debris finding its way down into the lever, causing friction.

Any suggestions on how I can get the action on the shifter to smooth out again?

 

Not that the sporty shifters were designed for longevity... but its likely that a piece of debris did find its way in there... on the other hand, everything works just fine until it doesnt, lol.