We always referred to them as synchro dogs.

The very small rectangular metal piece with the spring under it.  It does its work under the coupling sleeve, popping up and stopping its travel.  It just looks exposed, to where it might be popping up when it's not supposed to.

Here's an illustration of the ends of the three shift rods  that are stopped by the front cover.  When you move the lever for reverse the rod is stopped in its travel by the front cover.  If the front cover is not installed you might be getting some overtravel, causing the gear to stick.

Ohhh okay yeah sorry I knew them as dogs. Glad we are talking about the same thing. I agree they do slide around a little bit, but unlike 1-4 gears the config is different and there is no syncro on the Reverse side of the dog holding as close. So I assume the play is a little bit normal?

And yeah your might be right on the front cover aspect I plan to test that here this weekend if I catch up to some free time.

Edited November 15, 20177 yr by redfogo

are all the balls and springs installed on the shift fork rods? that should provide a pretty good stop as well. I was trying to use the FSM description of the dogs, that is what I called them as well, but did want to use the FSM terms if you were looking at it.

Edited November 15, 20177 yr by Dave WM

getting the video uploaded now, very diff looking from yours on those dogs. Has anyone been into that trans?

Yeah all the balls and springs are installed still. All i did was remove the cases to swap a new rear case in since it was damaged in shipping. Nothing else was done to the trans that i was told. It all looked original from what I took it apart based on the gasket seal around the cases. I never ran the trans I got it about a year ago and had been looking for a case half for about a year. I finally found one and this is where I am at now haha.

Edited November 15, 20177 yr by redfogo

if you look closely here you can see the dog as the long end towards the back. this is how I have it installed. The key is the dog spring should be directly under the pad (thick part) of the dog.

the exploded drawing is confusing since it looks like its the other way around. I have found problems with the exploded drawing, like the 1st gear thrust washer is shown on the wrong side of the gear, so I trust this image which is also in the FSM for dog setup on the 5th/reverse slider hub.

 

here is the link

 

Edited November 15, 20177 yr by Dave WM

on yours it seems like the shift dogs on 5 were installed backwards which is why I wondered if it had been worked on. Do the stakes on the shaft nuts look factory (one punch mark) or do they seem like punched more than once (re used). I don't think the dogs on the other gears have a direction but the 5/rev def do.

the odd thing is if the PO said it was good then mine is wrong, I have not tested mine out yet, but it does go in and out of gears as it should.

from the looks of yours the dog is popping up to far when you go into rev, then it has a hard time getting that thickened part (lets call it the dog pad) to fit back under the slider. Also not shown was my brass ring never moved around like yours does regardless of gear. it just stays loosely locked in place with the hub and could only move about 1/2 tooth either way.

 

Edited November 15, 20177 yr by Dave WM

Thanks for the video super helpful! I only have one pinch looks OEM you can see it at the 5sec mark.  Nothing really looks like its been taken off or rebuild before. Gaskets all looked original as well. But I see how different your configuration looks compared to mine. I will take a better video tonight and also get the front of the case on see if that changes anything.

Based on how the gear oil looked inside I have to believe this was ran before I got it and I would assume if it was in the wrong way reverse would have caused an issue to the point you wouldn't drive the car very far unless the previous owner only went forward for miles and miles.  Oil and the magnetic drain plug's shavings that were on it looked like the trans had ran for a while on the oil inside. 

Edited November 15, 20177 yr by redfogo

here is the exploded view see how the dogs look different here, but they also have the thrust washer on 1st wrong (not in that part of the pic but clearly wrong in the manual).