[Normy]

I really don't downshift my car, also a 5 speed.

This puts extra wear and tear on the clutch, which is expensive. The brakes are for stopping the car, and the pads are cheap and easy to replace. If your tranny is grinding, then the synchro's probably have a lot of wear and cannot match speeds properly any more. The 928 manual transmission is straight-forward, but like any major job, it is going to cost mucho dinero to rebuild and take a while to get done. Might be easier to try to buy a used one on eBay or from 928 International.

Good luck!

N

PS: One other thing to think about- Is your clutch completely disengaging when you push the pedal in? If it is dragging, then this makes it very difficult for the synchros to match speeds....