I agree with Jase and Jazz. It's the nature of the beast - the synchros have friction material that wears out over time and since you use 1st gear a LOT it tends to go first. I had a crunchy 1st and 3rd and managed to get rid of any issues with 3rd by replacing the bushings (well and a rennshift and stomski coupler). I ran into another issue which turned out to be a loose shift alignment fork - but I didn't come to this conclusion until I was most of the way into tearing the transmission apart. Had I known then what I know now, I would have tightened it up and gotten another year or two out of it. Look at it this way - you've already done the damage to the dog teeth, the transmission won't blow up on you (no warranty expressed or implied
). If you follow the advice of Jase and Jazz, you can drive it as is for a long, long time.