Try running over a puddle of water.  If the shifting gets immediately
easier, you simply need to lubricate the exposed portions of the linkage.  I
have had problems with the cup and ball arrangement on the side of the
tranny.  There is supposed to be a rubber boot covering the joint.  This
boot goes away after a while and dirt gets in and the grease goes away.
You'll want to replace the boot and clean and relube the joint.  You can
test to see if this is the problem by spraying some WD-40 or similar product
into the cup.  if the shifting gets easier, that's your problem.  The WD
will only last a week or so, though.

If you get stiffness and squeaks from the shift lever itself, that is fairly
easy to lubricate, too.

Most likely, the problem is in the linkage somewhere.

Karl Wolz
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Davidson" <wdavidson@THEGRID.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, February 02, 2001 9:06 AM
Subject: Re: Tranny question

> > Are there any "Classic shifter linkage problems" or "Classic stiff
tranny
> > problems"
>
> Yes. and yes.
> It is typical for an aging Vanagon transmission to be hard to get into
> gear... especially when it is cold... sometimes changing to Redline MT-90
> synthetic helps... sometimes it turns out to be a shift linkage problem...
> sometimes it indicates a transmission rebuild is coming...
> but that shouldn't be too much of a surprise if it has 100k or more on the
> odometer....
>
> Bill