p.s. sweet, im finnaly a professional

 

I'd also be interested in what the shop has/had to say about the shifting issue. I've got a 98 that seems to have close to the same shifting issues. Except I almost always hit 5th so it will slide into reverse and coming down the off-ramps 5th acts like a little kid and tries to hang onto that gear. 1st is almost always easier when rolling, very slowly, or after backing up.

 

I am not sure if this will help or not but I have the same NV3500 transmission and here are some of the characteristics that is has driving it daily:
If you shift it when the shift light indicates it sometimes is still difficult to get into gear
If you short shift it it will always be easy going in/out.
If it is cold, depending on how cold, it is ALWAYS hard to shift until it warms up. 1st and 2nd Gear are very low speed gears. I shift out of first between 3-7mph. 2nd at about 15-20mph.
I can drive about 33mph in 4 gear and the trans still pulls.
I shift into 5th at about 45mph.

I dont know if this helps at all, I guess I dont know how expirienced you are with manual transmissions. The Dodge 5-speed is unusual to drive anyway in comparison to other manual transmissions in my opinion so this MAY be the cause of the confusion.

 

Sounds like a hydraulic system leak. The slave/master comes as a sealed unit, and is not meant to be bled.. Just be thankful these don't use internal slaves, they are no fun..

 

wait. there is a shift light? is it that arrow on the rpm gauge? because mine shows up when i first turn it on, like every other light, but it never, NEVER has come on while driving.

 

It works in some rigs and doesn't in others, dunno why. Mine worked until I swapped in the Mopar PCM (for autos) and now it comes on anytime it warm enoguh and I'm going faster than 42MPH and have my foot on the gas which tells me the the shift light uses the same wire as the auto tranny TC lockup control.

I prefer it not to work anyways, I have no desire to shift when it tells me to.

 

UPDATE - A mech says its a leak, or master or slave, at least its not the syncros, but says that they can be bled, hope he is right, tomorrow we will find out, and the problems you listed are almost opposite from mine, they colder it is, the better it shifts, the shift light doesnt affect anything with mine. Hope that helped you a little. will update tomorrow when its fixed.

 

yes there is a shift light but in my 1997 it is on the left hand side next to the column. it is a "triangle" pointing up and it does work, however, is is not entirely accurate because I think it only turns on during preset rpms which can be problematic when going up a hill ^^