okay when its cold out and I try and move from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd the shifter grinds. after the car warms up it doesnt grind but its still hard to select these gears..especially reverse. sometimes reverse is almost impossible to get in. oh my car is a 97lx 5spd with about 75k miles on it.

 

How old is the transmission fluid? It may be old or low.
Drain it and fill with Honda MTF or you can try a synthectic like BG Synchroshift.

There may have been a recall for your tranny, but I think that was for a 4th or 5th gear problem.

 

well I had a clutch put in about a year and a half ago..I think they replaced the tranny oil then.

 

Is the clutch fluid resevoir full?

 

yup its full

 

I'm guessing bad syncros?

 

Yeah it sounds like the syncros....had the same problem with my porsche.

The only way I could easily get into first was, at a stop, go into second and then move it straight to first. To get into reverse I did the same thing....second, to first, to reverse. This kind of lines up the gears which is what the syncros do for you.

Good luck.