I took the ole girl out for the first time, BUT....

[DGXSER]

Pastor, he is referring to the main shaft and not the countershaft. I got confused by it at first as well.

[DiverRay]

Just so everyone knows it CAN happen, I have an engine in the "shop" that I'm going to put a big bore kit in. It has THREE TEETH missing off one gear on the main shaft. I don't know HOW the PO did it, but he DID break the transmission! So yes, you CAN hurt these, you just have to REALLY try, I guess.

[DGXSER]

Ray, My guess is you would have to shift without the clutch pulled and really apply the rule of "if you can't find it, grind it" on a consistant basis. JMHO

[LuckyEddie]

(Problem Resolved) I Took the OLd Girl.......

The culprit turned out to be the snap ring/circlip #40 on the exploded views of the main shaft. It was probably installed backwards by the PO. It had poped it's groove and was allowing 5th gear to rub against the case and thus not mate with it's coresponding gear. As a result of spinning out of kilter, the snap ring groove was buggered by the out of place parts and the shaft rendered useless. I got a box of parts from andreas and was able to assemble what I needed and I am back in business. I took it for a 10 mile ride last night, there are still a few issues, but the 5th gear is not one of them.
This was my first experience working on a tranny. The cool part is that the tranny is no longer a box of mysteriuosly spinning gears. Now it all makes sense to me.
While spliting cases and the seamingly endless task of scraping gasket surfaces, my close friend Bob suggested that I toss my putty knife/gasket scraper and use the blade from a utility knife (not the handle, just the blade). It seemed a bit odd at first, but turned out to be the best gasket scraping job of my life. Try it , you will agree.

Thanks for all the help and support!

[CatatonicBug]

This was my first experience working on a tranny. The cool part is that the tranny is no longer a box of mysteriuosly spinning gears. Now it all makes sense to me.

That has got to be the greatest thing about DIYing this stuff. With a little guidance, and some courage, you LEARN so much!! Then, you can give advice and guidance to someone else later on. Makes you feel good, doesn't it?!