[Dave at Pelican Parts]

"First and reverse crunching" is the classic sign of a clutch that is out of adjustment. It isn't disengaging properly so everything is still spinning when you try to put it into gears.

Tighten up the adjustment on your clutch cable and see if that helps. If it does and then things get worse again, you either don't have a jam-nut on the clutch adjustment, or the clutch tube inside the center tunnel has broken loose.

--DD