[Shotimes] Transmission problem

[Doug Rentko]

Hello,

     The tranny on my 91 (MTX, naturally) has recently developed a
problem, and I was wondering if anyone out there had any advice. 
When attempting to engage first gear from a stop, the shift lever
will slide into gear, but nine times out of ten, it will "pop" back
out of gear as I let up on the clutch.  If I try to hold the lever in
gear, it pops out violently with a grinding noise, but it'll pop out
silently if I'm not holding the lever.  I can easily engage every
other gear from a stop without incident(I've been starting in second
lately, but I can even get started in fifth!), and I can also
downshift into first while under way without a problem.  Any ideas on
what's wrong?  I'm thinking it's a problem with the first gear
synchro-blocker ring pair.  Also, I changed the fluid today, and it
had a shimmering metallic quality(not very encouraging!)  I'm
thinking it'll need some internal transaxle work to fix.  Should I
try get this tranny fixed up, or start looking for a "recycled" unit
with fewer miles?  BTW, the car has about 185k on the odo, and got a
new clutch in 1997 at about 120k, and regular fluid changes.  Any
advice would be most appreciated.

     Doug Rentko