After suffering my second cracked transmission, I noticed the clutch slip right away and pulled the car off the road. I had the bellhousing repaired and reinstalled the trans.

Now, the car shifts smoothly into 2-5 and Reverse, but instead of "clunking" into first, it makes more of a "ping" audible from the front of the car and spits the shifter back into neutral.

I removed the top shift cable and tried moving the shift arms manually with the same result, they popped back as soon as I let go of them. Does anyone know the cause of this and if there's any remedy?

I'm about $6000 into an $18000 car with no notable performance increases and it's going to find a grenade in the glovebox if it gives me anymore grief.