'98 Esteem 5 speed trans issues

[quick69gto]

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.

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.

[quick69gto]

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.