I have/had some of the same issues with mine. I have the TKO 5 speed. Hard to get into first when at a dead stop. It seems like it hits a wall. Mine has always done this. Grinding into reverse. Just a mentioned above, drop into second then reverse.
My clutch was extremely hard to push in. I have the Ram in mine. After messing with it forever, I changed the
oil to DOT 3/4
synthetic, built the heat shield, re-worked the bracket as it wasn't aligned properly, made a slightly larger push rod that has a steel ball on the end and not a bolt, greased that, got spray lithium grease and carefully sprayed the input shaft on the trans, greased the hell out of the fork ball. It made a huge difference. The slave is 1"(I have ac deco push type #386251) and the master is 7/8".
My clutch pedal is higher then the brake pedal. I have to push it to the floor to fully disengage the clutch. I have my set so the fire wall is the stop for the pedal. Even if you have free play when you first install the slave cylinder, once you bleed all the air out, it will be tight against the fork since all the air is gone. You can push it back with your fingers to see it still does have free play.
*make sure alignment is perfect with the slave to the fork
*
synthetic brake fluid DOT 3&4
*lube parts
*make sure the pedal has enough travel to fully release clutch
*heat shield.
*better contact piece to the fork. I cleaned all the burs from the fork hole with my dremel tool since it was all beat up. I found a fine thread metric rod that has a nut to adjust it and a steel ball with a hole drilled for contact on the fork
Good luck with it. As I mentioned, I still have the first gear syndrome at times. It just seems like it were it decides to stop sometimes and not mesh correctly. In my case, I think it is just the trans I have as I have a TKO from around the 2002 year that has been slightly abused!!
Scott