5kTQ: Transmission questions

[steveb@newkla.kla.com]

The only transmission problem I have ever had on the qtc is having the
shift linkage come loose, but I have been noticing some strange behavior
from the transmission on the 5kQ and wanted to solicit opinions from the 
q-list ...

The car is a 1988 5kCSTQW with 95K miles.  I have been noticing two things
that are concerning me.  The first thing that I noticed is that sometimes
when engaging first gear when the car is stopped the linkage will allow
the gears to attempt to engage (i.e. grind!) before the guts of the tranny
have stopped spinning.  I don't speed shift, it doesn't appear to be temp
erature dependent, and I don't think it is a problem with the clutch.  The 
second issue is that it seems that there is a problem with second gear.  
It seems like the gear is just barely engaged when the shifter is set to 
second gear.  This primarily exhibits itself as an occasional missed shift 
or neutral rather than 2nd, but last night the transmission actually popped 
out of gear!  Most of the time the transmission behaves properly, but I'm 
starting to think that I'm going to have to have the thing rebuilt/replaced 
soon.  Could it possibly be the shift linkage?  Anyone out there had any 
similar experiences?  

TIA!
Steve Buchholz
s_buchho@kla.com
San Jose, CA (USA)