i think ill try adjusting the clutch and see what happens there, then i will try and get another shifter assembly and see if that fixes it.
the clutch was supposedly just replaced and maybe they just didn't adjust it right.

other than the trans its a nice little truck and i hope to get years of use out of it. it only has 67k on it and someone has started a weber conversion, not a very succesfull one though, thats the next mess i will have to get into.
thanks for the help