Since I just finished doing this yesterday please allow me a moment...
Before you begin this task you would be well served to thoroughly coat the
joint where the tranny joins the transaxle with PB Blaster or your favorite
rust-chewer and let it soak while you work on removing linkage, cooler,
mounts, etc.  The dissimilar metal corrosion I found between these 2 pieces
made separating them a bit more challenging than I would have liked!

I also was successful by lowering the transaxle and allowing it to rest on a
jack stand while supporting the tranny with a nice sized floor jack.  Of
course, I had the rear of the vehicle up and well supported on stands to
give me some working room.  Note that the rod coming through the transaxle
from the torque converter will want to come out due to the downward pitch of
the whole setup.  Simply reach in and slip it back in toward the engine and
the tranny should lower out nicely.

Best of luck!
bill
----- Original Message -----
From: John Lunetta <blun1432@OPTONLINE.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2002 6:45 AM
Subject: motor mounts

> After checking out my Bentley manual I see that you can remove the
transmission without removing the engine. There are 3 mounts, one at the
rear of the trans and 2 on either side of the engine. Any one of them can be
changed without removing the tranny or the engine. If you want to change the
trans mount you must rig up a way to suport the engine from under the pan,
with a jack and a flat block of wood.The engine mounts can be changed also
and again you must rig away of suporting the engine.Good Luck Tim.  John 90
vanagon gl