i just tore my tranny down because 3 gear never seemed to fully engage, its done this since ive owned the car. When i bought it, they told me it had just been rebuilt. (3rd was out). well now ive got a new 3/4 fork and some other goodies to go in and looking at my mainshaft assembly and others on the internet i noticed that on my syncros the grooves are on the back side, all the pics ive seen on the net the grooves are on the front side. Just curious as to if it has been assembled wrong.

 

Word has it that the direction does not matter. I installed mine how I took it apart, 1-2 and 3-4 grooves towards the front, 5-6 groove towards the rear. Then I flipped the reverse synchro.

 

Are you talking about the syncro itself or the ring that slides back and forth via the fork. I do not believe it is possible to install the ring backwards as the sides are mirrors of eachother. If a gear doesn't fully engage it's usually the fork pads are worn or the fork is bent. Now my trans just yesterday decided that second did not need a synco so unless I rev match I cannot shift into it without grinding. Glad I have all the parts for a stage II rebuild ready to go.

The reason I say it shouldn't matter is that a simple fix for a car not going into reverse is removing the tail housing and just rotating the ring 180* and now you have a new mating face with the gear.