I had the same thought and when Daryl at AAA Transaxle rebuilt mine, I had a
taller 4th put in and I'm VERY happy, about 500rpm less in top gear.

-----Original Message-----
From:   Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Pancho de la Luna
Sent:   Tuesday, June 26, 2001 11:47 AM
To:     vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject:        FW: 5 spd tranny

Hey gang-

looking to reduce the RPMs on my Vanagon while cruising at highway speed for
a little better fuel economy and less wear on the engine. I know that there
are 5spd trannys avail from south Africa, but I was curious if the synchro 5
spd would work without all of the forward gearing on my normal GL. any
suggestions?

possibly rebuild the tranny so that it has a lower ratio running gear in
4th? what would a recommended ratio be that would work with a 4spd?

Myles
'86 GL