In a message dated 9/1/01 8:10:37 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
terrytan@EARTHLINK.NET writes:

<< Has anyone tried replacing the 4 speed with the 5 speed transmission? I
heard this is only available
 in the S. African models.
 Are they available in the US new or rebulit ? >>

Terry,

US bound Vanagons only came with the 5-spd in the 1983 diesels IIRC. You can
buy the 5-spd trans here. Try listmember and tranny rebuilder Daryl @ AA
transaxle. Sorry I don;t have his email handy. Hopefully he'll see this.
Chris Weddle at Weddle Engineering offers it as well.

If you really want to be adventurous, you can stick a Porsche 911 "901" and
"915" trans in there. There are details on the swap in archives. I believe
most are authored by William Kennedy. There is also a kit to install a
Porsche G50 (really beefy) trans in there from Marty @ MSDS. You can find a
link to his site in my webpage at:

 <A HREF="http://hometown.aol.com/bentbtstr8/vanagoncafelinkspage.html">
Vanagon Cafe links</A>

When I figure out what Daryl & Chris URL's are I will happily add those on.
Daryl? Chris?

BenT