There was a group of defective B&M shifters that were installed in the 2000 ZX2 S/R. After the car became warm the ball would jam in the shifter and make shifting extremely difficult.
Mine jammed 3 days after buying the car. Fortunately my dealer was smart enough to install a stock shifter until the replacement B&M was delivered 2.5 months later.
I don't know if the Zetec powered Contour and the Zx2 use the same shifter. i suspect not. I think the Contour has the MTX-75 transmission and the ZX2 has the mazda G5M unit.
However, if anyone has a B&M short shifter that is hard to shift it may be worth checking the fit of the shifter ball.
