'98 Esteem 5 speed trans issues

First a little history,
I've been in the auto repair field for 30 plus years so I've rebuilt transmissions before. This manual trans is baffling me.
I work for a courier company that has several Esteems in a fleet of about 50 cars.

Two of the Esteems developed a trans howl in every gear. I replaced car #1 with a used trans and rebuilt the 5 speed that came out that car. I replaced the input shaft bearing and the rest of the internals (gears, syncros, bearings, detent balls, etc.) looked excellent.
The rebuilt trans from car #1 was installed it into the car #2, and I rebuilt car #2 original trans for a spare.
Well, car #2 began not to fully engage second gear unless you pulled back hard and held the shift lever in second. Downshifting into second worked fine.

I replaced that trans with the spare I had rebuilt and now it's doing the same thing.:banghead:

Anyone have any experience rebuilding the '95 thru '98 Esteem 5 speed trans?
Did I miss something?

Any input would be appreciated before I find another used trans to put in the car. Used transmissions for these cars are not easy to find and are expensive.

Thanks.

Fixed it.
The counter shaft rear bearing needed to be shimmed forward just a tad.
Works perfectly now.
I can't figure out how I missed that.
Oh well.