Richie,
I have the Richmond 5 speed as well and it certainly doesn't shift as well as the Muncie I use to have in my Chevelle. However, I've spent a little time tweaking mine and it now shifts way better than it use to. I found that the amount of torque applied to the bolts that mount it to the transmission makes a huge difference on how easily the shifter shifts. If yours is hard to shift, you might want to start there and see if loosening thoset bolts a tiny bit makes a difference. I also found that running
synthetic transmission fluid helped.
Lastly, I had problems getting the tranny into 5th gear as well as popping out of reverse. At first, I blamed those problems on the transmission only to discover that the shifter boot ring was actually getting in the way and limiting the shifter movement. So, resolve the problem by removing the shifter boot but screwing down the shifter ring. Move the shifter through all gears while making sure the ring as well as transmission tunnel hole never interferes with the shifter. The shifter ring has to be located in exactly the right spot or it interferes while shifting into one gear or another.
Chris