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sometimes when i go into first gear it grinds with the clutch down, other times its fine. any ideas what this is?

from neutral, or when moving eg from 2nd?

if neutral, and happening even if you leave the pedal down for many seconds first, then your clutch cable needs adjusting a little

from 2nd, you might just need to be less rough with it ... if you already are cautious with that change, then maybe worn synchros, need box oil topped up/changed, etc

i think ill try adjusting the cable and checking the box oil

i had that in 4th.... it turned out to be worn Syncro.... (so i was told )

hope it aint nothing major!!

but like Tahey said...

worn synchros on 1st and 4th should be livable with (just never change into 1st on the move, and get adept at the old rev-matching/orchestral timing on 3rd-4th/5th-blip-4th changes) ..... having it happen on 2nd and/or 3rd would be a royal asspain!

however not hearing much of your detailed situation, i can just hope its a slightly stretched clutch cable that needs the nuts tightening up a bit (or replacement with a manual if it's one of the few surviving auto-adjusters) so that it will actually fully disengage when you push the pedal down.

btw if you can't get it to fully disengage, without it slipping when the pedals up, that's your "early" warning sign of a clutch from which you have extracted the entire value

Could easily be the clutch, you'll be amazed what a difference it makes to gear changes. Is your pedal fairly heavy?

i wouldnt say my pedal is too heavy but i havent got round to playing with clutch cable and when i opened the level plug on the gear box it came out

err... what came out? the plug or the oil? (if the plug, then the rubber one on top or the metal hex-socket one on the side?)

check the cable tension first mate!

it was the top metal hex plug on the side, and oil came out. ill check the cable tension tomorrow, how tight should it be?

theres no set thing, you just have to play with the tensioner & locknut pair until it's properly usable once again.
if you dont have a pair of nuts on the end, just a big metal lump, then it's a self adjuster and worth replacing as they dont work properly after all this time

when you tighten it up, that's as if you're pushing the pedal that little bit more all the time, and loosening it is like releasing it a bit more. hence tighter = bite point is higher, less tendancy to grind, more tendancy to slip. looser = bite point is lower, more tendancy to grind, less tendancy to slip.

the only way you can be sure about it is going to a nice, quiet, straight bit of road (not neccessarily a "fast" one), preferably with a slight uphill so you can better check for slippage (need to get into top gear with about 2000rpm to check it best), and just drive - assess - stop - bonnet up - tweak - repeat until you're satisfied with the feel.