To say the least my 3rd gear is done. Its not good but what makes it worse is I cant find another tranny for it. Its a L50 5 speed top shifter and I am not sure what other trans I can get to adapted to work. Blah this truck is a complete money pit.

 

Yeah...I went through all that. It's worth it in the end, for me.
Any first gen tranny will work with no mods, as far as I know. An L52 would be best. I know a guy here with I think 3 of them sitting in his yard...doesn't help you, but I'm guessing that whatever I can find in Montana, you can find 100 of in Cali. None of the first gen tranny's were very strong...

I ended up going with the L52HD from Marlin, but it's real pricey. We can go through the whole W56 or G52 thing...but I think you've been around long enough to probably hear about making those fit.