Hello everyone, I recently purchased a 06 civic ex 5 speed that had a bad trans. The previous transmission had a damaged throw out bearing and input shaft bearing which damaged the shaft. I purchased a low mileage 5 spd trans (from a trans shop w/ warranty) and had it installed by an expert Honda mechanic who happens to be a friend. So he replaced the trans and also said my outer axle seal was bad so had that replaced too. So, I get the car back yesterday and noticed it runs and drives smooth and no noise BUT it grinds every time I want to put it into REVERSE and it is hard to go into every hear especially 1st from a stop. It is by no means smooth like most manual Honda's I've driven ( this is my 1st 8 gen ) and it feels like im forcing it into every gear (not impossible, just hectic).

I brought this up to the mechanic and he said this is a common issue on 8th gen 5 speed transmissions hence my issue. He also mentioned if It might need an adjustment. My thing is, I feel as if he should have done all this as part of the job of replacing the trans and or may have rushed the repair and overlooked this detail. I don't want to think this way just yet before getting more concrete opinions. The car runs and drives smooth when in gear but its just that hard shift into gear that has me uneasy. I tried to look a the stickies for this being a common issue and didn't find anything.

Any suggestions on what I can look into to repair this issue, or any ideas as to what might be the issue?

2006 Civic EX
5 speed
NO check engine lights
NO other issues
180k

Thanks in advance!