I doubt the throttle hang has anything to do with hard shifting unless the clutch is not releasing all the way. Reason? The input shaft is not spinning with the engine when the clutch is fully disengaged so the engine speed won't affect the input shaft at all.
I have no second gear synchro rigt now so I know what I say is true since I have to double clutch and I experimented many different ways. I tried to press the clutch pedal in, let go, and press in again, then hit the gas and shift at the same time; no grinding. I would also help if someone can post a picture of the internals of the tranny (I'm still pissed someone placed a last minute bid 50¢ over my maximum for the Ford 5 speed tranaxle manual on ebay)!
