That does sound like the TO bearing, I had a friend do it while I was doing something else... he broke the tab. I Ghetto fixed it, it squeaked at first, but now is quiet ( 1.5K miles). The synchros... sounds like they just went, bad driving habits, age and imrpoper lubrication could all be to blame.

Sounds like your almost there. The only thing with the factory boot is that it has a plastic rim at the bottom that screws on to the console. other then that its just vinyl sewn together.

The knob just screws on, so you can get pretty much anything that fits.