have to be almost stopped to get into first

Your first gear synchronizer has some wear, which happens to every vehicle with a few miles.

To down shift into first, you'll need to double clutch. Which is what every big rig driver does (they mostly have unsynchronized transmissions). Shift into neutral, releast the clutch, blip the throttle to the RPMs that will match what your engine will be spinning in first gear, then clutch back down and shift into first. It's rev matching, as you were before, but with an extra pause in neutral.

 

Its normal on my second gen, to have to be under 5mph or so to go into first. It would be interesting to try to double clutch, tell us how that works for you.
Jared

 

I'll throw my 2cents in here. I've owned 2 1rst gens and one 2nd gen, all 6 cyl manual 4x4's.

- 1998 3.4L 5spd, had it from 50km to 300km (kilometers, so 30 to 190k in miles) This truck would have to be at a complete stop to get it into 1rst gear. On days of minus 25c to minus 40c (it would have to warm up for 5 to 10 minutes before even thinking it would want to get into 2nd gear.

- 2002 4x4 3.4L 5spd, this truck you don't have to come to a complete stop for 1rst, and 2nd has never been a problem. I may be wrong, but first gear seems alot longer than the other first 1rst gen (pre 2001).

It was almost like my 98 had no synchro (like some early brittish sports cars) and the 2002 does. Also the 98 would only get you to 10km/hr where my 2002 gets me to 20km/hr before I have to shift.

I only had the 2010 4.0L 6spd 4x4 for 1.5yrs, but as I recall you had to slow down, but not to a complete stop before it would let you into first.

From what I've seen through friends trucks and mine (6 or so of my buds all had the same trucks) 1995.5 to 2000 you'd almost come to a complete stop and 2001 to 2004's you can still be rolling pretty good.

 

Tried the double clutch method over work and it works perfectly. I went into first gear going 20mph. No I did not release the clutch going this fast, but it did go into first at that speed where as its usually locked out.
Push clutch in shift to neutral.
Rev to 2500-3000ish rpms
Push clutch in, slips into first gear without effort.

Jared and my .02

 

It's even possible to do without using the clutch at all. Just ease off the throttle to unload the drivetrain, gently nudge the shifter into neutral, once in neutral use the throttle to rev match, then gently nudge the shifter from neutral into the gear. It requires a nearly perfect rev match to get back into gear without grinding.