Luke,
I have the same drive-train. Without actually driving your vehicle it is
difficult to assess what you describe, however, the notchiness you feel in
the transmission is fairly normal for the NV3500. Mine is notchy feeling,
but it has smoothed out a bit after 5500 miles. Give it a chance to break
in, after all these are truck transmissions and not silck feeling Honda or VW
transmissions. Mine has slipped out of first a couple of time also. Scared
hell out of me when it happened. Sounded like a gun shot. If you are not
carefull when selecting first gear, it is possible to not engage first gear
completely. Pay attention to this and you will see what I mean. I have
become very aware of this and some times will re-engage first gear ( if I
don't feel I got it right the first time) by selecting fourth, fifth or even
reverse quickly before going back to first. There is definitely a "feel"
when it engages correctly. Learn this and you will not have this problem
anymore.
The noise you are hearing when you let out the clutch is most likely a
throw-out bearing. Do you have a 4X4? I'll assume so for now. You are also
hearing the front propeller shaft turning. Yes, if I understand correctly,
the front propeller shaft turns even when you are in 2WD. This is also the
thing that "cluncks" loudly when you step on the clutch quickly to go from
1st to 2nd gear. Try it in 4WD and this same noise won't happen because the
front differential is engaged and the front propeller shaft has got some
"resistance" on it.
The whole engine/drive train tends to loosen up after enough miles.
Hope this helps
Andrew
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