I just got a 91 Civic Coupe Manual. All gears are working good and the clutch seems fine although when I put it into reverse either slowly or fast it grinds pretty badly. What could be the problem?

 

Your transmission prolly doesn't have a synchro from reverse, i don't drive stick so this might not be correct. To put it in reverse without grinding gears, you have to put the trans into neutral, let the clutch out, put the clutch back in, shift to reverse, and let the clutch out again.

 

That's an option, what I have done in the past, is to put the tranny into fourth then go to reverse.
I find fourth easiest because it's close, and fifth usualy will not work becasue there's a block there that will not let you go straight from 5th to reverse.

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Thats pretty much the same as putting it into neutral.

 

In the car manual (mine still has its!) Honda says that if you can't go directly into reverse, put the car into a forward gear first. Just remember to leave the clutch pedal in when going to reverse. Double clutching is fine, but it's a thing of the past when manual transmissions did not have synchro gears. And again you are also right about the reverse not being a synchro gear. It's cheaper to put a square cut gear(reason your tranny whines when you reverse fast) with no synchro rings into a tranny.

Remember: If you can't find em, grind em!