curlrider11 wrote:...what might this issue only happening in first and not neutral to 2nd or 3rd be an indicator of? Still the pilot bearing?
The synchronizers on 2nd and 3rd are the reason. In some other places they call them "brakes", since they actually brake the rotating movement of the axles inside the transmission to the speed of the corresponding gear that they are going to engage. In this case they brake the input shaft to equalize the speed of the 2nd or the 3rd gear, so there's no grinding noise (provided the synchro rings are good).
1st or Reverse don't have a synchronizer so the speed of the input shaft can't be reduced. Normally when you actuate the clutch at a dead stop, the input shaft and the disk will slowly stop rotating on their own and no grinding noise is present. This is not happening to curlrider11 Patrol at the moment.
This is what Wikipedia says about Synchromesh or synchronizers:
Synchromesh transmission was introduced by Cadillac in 1928. If the dog teeth make contact with the gear, but the two parts are spinning at different speeds, the teeth will fail to engage and a loud grinding sound will be heard as they clatter together. For this reason, a modern dog clutch in an automobile has a synchronizer mechanism or synchromesh, which consists of a cone clutch and blocking ring. Before the teeth can engage, the cone clutch engages first, which brings the selector and gear to the same speed using friction. Until synchronization occurs, the teeth are prevented from making contact, because further motion of the selector is prevented by a blocker (or baulk) ring. When synchronization occurs, friction on the blocker ring is relieved and it twists slightly, bringing into alignment certain grooves or notches that allow further passage of the selector which brings the teeth together. The exact design of the synchronizer varies among manufacturers.
The synchronizer has to overcome the momentum of the entire input shaft and clutch disk when it is changing shaft rpm to match the new gear ratio. It can be abused by exposure to the momentum and power of the engine, which is what happens when attempts are made to select a gear without fully disengaging the clutch. This causes extra wear on the rings and sleeves, reducing their service life. When an experimenting driver tries to "match the revs" on a synchronized transmission and force it into gear without using the clutch, the synchronizer will make up for any discrepancy in RPM. The success in engaging the gear without clutching can deceive the driver into thinking that the RPM of the layshaft and transmission were actually exactly matched. Nevertheless, approximate rev. matching with clutching can decrease the difference in rotational speed between the layshaft and transmission gear shaft, therefore decreasing synchro wear.