M20-M21 Selecting 1st problem

[buck]

i must admit, my old man always told me when i was learning to drive to touch second gear first to get the synchro going on first, have always selected second and then first seems to go straight in, have to do this with my old ZF 5 speed from the 70s as its difficult to get into first when cold. could be a whole lot of bull, but seems to work for my m20 and zf box.
also very true about linkages and the circlip, nearly destroyed my m20 with a broken circlip on third gear, just got it in time before the bearing tore itself to bits.

[Calum]

Good onya fellas,yesterday after going through your suggestions I decided to start from the start again,After lifting up the boot on the gearstick I could see that as I headed for 1st the reverse gate does move ever so slightly with it as SLR_dave suggested. This morning I booked the old girl in to the local mechanic for Wednesday to put her up on the hoist with me in it so He can see exactly how the selectors are (condition+alighnment).and who knows what else will be spotted,will report back then. Ta for now...

[Calum]

OK good news and I feel just a little sillytoday I took the Tonner to the mechanic and once it was up on the hoist the old guy just grinn's and gets a can of CRC and the air-compressor blower nozzle then sets about cleaning out the build up of GRIT out of the linkage's moving parts and says "give it a go" WOW THAT'S IT,basically because the tonner gets driven along alot of sandstone roads including winter time GRIT had simply built-up and made the moving parts gum up.Now the funny thing is the shifter isn't firm any more,it's now sloppyStill better than a gearbox rebuild!! Once again thank's for your feed back/suggestions Byron,Dave and Buck.
Cheers Calbert