Remove circlip.  Reach in with a largish pair of Chanellock pliers and grab
the collar (looks like a piece of water pipe) and pull it straight toward
yourself (toward the back of the van, if it's still installed).  Once the
splines have cleared, you'll be able to simply unscrew the input shaft.

Karl Wolz

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Hunt" <Yovanguy@AOL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2001 3:02 PM
Subject: Transmission Main Shaft! Help

> Volks,
>
> Getting quite frustrated with the simplistic instructions in the Bentley
> manual, i.e, remove circlip, slide reverse gear back unscrew shaft.
>
> I have been sliding , and truning both ways in gear, in nuetral, soetimes
> hoding output etc, etc!  no help.
>
> Any body got any tricks to get this thing out, what direction do you need
to
> turn shaft to remove, I assume it was normally counterclockwise, its an
> Aircooled transmission if it matters,
>
> TIA.............Joe
> Omaha