Ok,

I have made some more calls and discovered a few more
disturbing things about my AutoSpiel trans rebuild.

1. Russ @ Autospiel told me that all parts were from BowWow, a
local VW parts house, and their part #s are shown on my invoice.

2. A call to BowWow confirmed that this is the case, and the pilot
bearing and mainshaft bearing part #s match. However, according
to BowWow, they do not sell the pinion roller bearing for the
Vanagon, it is a dealer item. The only pinion bearing they do list is
a "Q1X" (VW # 091-311-219) which they state is only for the 72-79
type 2 trans.

3. A call back to Autospiel to clarify his "warranty" (which seems to
have evaporated): Russell states that he warranties his work, not
necessarily parts, but he will cover work required to fix errors in his
labour. (I did not mention my discovery about the bearing).

So now the question is: did he install the wrong bearing? Will a
pinion bearing 091-311-219 for a 72-79 bus fit, and could it suffer
early failure if made to fit in my '88 Vanagon 4 speed? If it matters,
he also replaced the input shaft due to a failed pilot bearing a few
years back, but I don't think this shaft has anything to do with the
pinion, does it?

If he did install the wrong bearing, then I think this would qualify as
an error on his part, and should be covered by his warranty.

Can anyone shed some more light on this one?

Thanks, and once again, I'm still off list.

Shawn Wright, I.T. Manager
Shawnigan Lake School
swright@SLS.bc.ca
http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright
http://www.sls.bc.ca