Does it go into 1st gear easier when the car is not running? If so, its probably the input shaft spinning. Your clutch cable may be too tight, or the disk not be sliding on the splines, or the pilot bearing may be seized. I had this problem on my 89. In my case disk was not moving freely on the splines.

The first sign of m47 failure is bearing noise in all gears except 4th. I don't know of a good way to test them off a car. You can spin them by hand and see if they turn smoothly without any play, and you can check the fluid for metal filings. But the advice I got was used m47s are risky. I put used M46s on my 89 and 93 240s instead of gambling on used M47s.