Salutations! First post on here. I just purchased the lovely Ethel pictured above. The car's great, she's been taken care of, but I've been having problems with third gear. EA81, 4WD, 4-speed. Grinds and kicks out of gear if I shift too quickly. Even successful shifts are occasionally painful (a hard knock when the gears engage, generally). I'm assuming it's just worn synchros, courtesy of a 30-year old transmission. I've read into it a bit, and it seems that this issue is fairly common? Any advice or suggestion is appreciated. If I shift slowly and firmly, I can usually avoid grinding. My primary concern is this affecting the longevity of the car. 

Thanks,
friendlyfallenfoe on behalf of Ethel, my 1984 GL hatchback. 

Changing the fluid may help, as will adding 1 quart per service of Rislone engine oil additive to the trans. In my experince regular high grade 75w-90 NON synth will work best. In the end you will probably want to search the many very popular "5 speed swap" threads on here. That alone will make a new car out of it IHO.