[Mart]

The pin can theoretically be punched out from below, but you might not be able to get a straight shot on it. You might need to drill the head off it and punch it out from above. I did that recently, it went ok.

It would be good if you could slip a new 1st/rev slider in there, and a reverse idler. You really need to look at the condition of the cluster gear and make sure that is ok.

As stated above, the nicks in the splines are stock. If you look at it it is where the milling cutter for the straight splines at the other end of the shaft "run out" into the larger helical spline.

It might be worth stating that peoples views on what is usable vary wildly and while better gears would be desirable, those gears would actually still propel the truck down the road and as long as you aren't street racing or expecting to do mega mileage would probably hold up for a while. Most driving is done in top so the intermediate gears are not under constant pressure. A lot of it depends on how handy you are balanced against how much money you can afford for parts or paying someone to rebuild it for you.

You might not be able to "flip" the release shaft/lever, it will probably be clocked wrong. You might (can't guarantee it, though) be able to use the parts from the truck box.

You can always cut/weld/bend/redrill stuff to get it to work.

Mart.