Manual transmission noise

[pvfjr]

I'm suddenly getting a lot of noise in my '81 Datsun pickup's 5-speed. It's kinda like a rattle, had it in lower gears first, but now it's in all of them. I've looked for nissan/datsun forums, but have had little luck. I don't even know what tranny I have or what I might be able to swap it with. Does anyone know anything about these?

 

[Hogback Fabrication]

Sounds mostly like bearings to me.

 

[chulisohombre]

could be bearings or the idler gears.shift folrk could be worn also,letting the gears get sloppy.doesnt sound good whatever it is.

 

[pvfjr]

After driving a little more, I've noticed that there's suddenly a lot more play in the stick. I can actually twist it left and right, and pull it up and down. It stops the noise too when I mess with it, but it doesn't seem like the noise is coming directly from the stick. I know, I'm asking for a lot of double entendres here, but didn't see a way around it. Would it be the forks then? I don't really understand what brought this on so quickly.