It has finally happened! The nightmare of all Syncro owners! The damn
tranny is kaput.

I was just driving along, and when I was to pull it out of 3rd into 4th,
it was stuck in 3rd. I couldn't get it out of 3rd until the speed was
below 50 km/h (30 mph), and it was not smooth. It sorta clunked out of
gear. It shifted smoothly into 4th, and also into 3rd. It goes out of
4th smoothly, but not 3rd. 1st and 2nd is unaffected.

So what went wrong? Since it will not go out of 3rd smoothly, but 4th
seems to be ok, I assume it is the 3rd synchronizing ring, not the
3rd/4th synchronizer. And since I am on a very strict budget now, just
dropping the van or even the tranny off at the dealer is not an option.
That would cost as much as the value of the Van with a good tranny!

So I figured I could maybe do what very few Vanagon owners would do, I
wanna go in and fix it myself. This leads to a row of questions. I
looked through the pages of the Bentley (thanks again, Tony!), and it
looks like I may be able to do the job myself.

I feel qualified to the job, I do have access to a 25 ton hydraulic
press, and access to a mechanic that has worked a few years in a Vanagon
workshop. I have not spoken with him yet, but am going to do so in the
weekend. He was about to buy the car, but backed out when he heard of
the tranny problems. Maybe, maybe he will buy it if I fix the tranny.

The things I wonder about:

1) It is a bit unclear in the manual, do I have to remove the diff to
get the main shaft out, and do I have to remove the pinion shaft to
remove the main shaft?

2) Can I get through this "rebuild" by just replacing the damaged parts,
and leave everything else as is? I was hopping for this, as it would be
cheapest. I don't care how long it will last, I'm selling the car.

3) Which parts "must" be replaced except the 3rd/4th synchronizer and
the 3rd and 4th Synchronizing rings?

TIA, more questions are on the way, guaranteed.

PerL
87 Syncro 112i