Guys I took the pictures I promised today, hope you get to see where the problem lies in our transmissions.

The fork(i'll call it that) you see pointed with the cheaply made red arrow (need photoshop classes) is the one that engages 3rd. When this fork is in the upwards position 3rd is engaged. The main problem is that wear on the top part just were the tip of the arrow head is gets really wasted. So much that it makes it hard for the shifter mechanism to move this fork up. The main solution would be to weld some material and fill this void again with metal.

When I took the 79 tranny apart I found that there was some wear but a lot less than my abused 85, so I switched them.

Hope this picture helps..

 

you planning to rebuild it yourself?

 

here is the tail section removed and the rest of the tranny for reference...

 

nah just look...you just need to remove the tailsection of it. It's so freaking easy to do too.

I plan on fixing the bad one just welding it like I mentioned. No need to crack her open.