$38 of wishful thinking, 4th gear synchros. are toast

[E. Roy Wendell IV]

Something about this picture isn't right. I've driven or owned four of 
these cars every one of which had well over 150k miles on the 
transmission. Not a one of them had shifting problems. I don't see how 
anyone could manage to abuse one gear bad enough to wear out the 
syncro, especially fourth. Second gear I could see, maybe.

I once tore apart a whole transmission because of similar shifting 
problems only to find the syncros in excellent shape. The problem 
turned out to be a clutch disc that was binding on the input shaft and 
thus not disengaging completely during shifting.

Playing skeptic here, I'll put forward the possibility that your 
problems are clutch related as well.

Roy

> It's in really nice shape otherwise and the transmission isn't really 
> dead, either...4th gear is giving me fits, but otherwise the car runs 
> and looks and drives like you would expect a 5KCSTQ with < 50k miles 
> to!