Bob, you have now earned your Vanagon stripes.  That little piece of 
misengineering by VW has caused more headaches than almost anything else 
except for the heads leaking.  You need to remove that damn shield to change 
the oil pressure switch which fails quite often.  You need to remove that 
shield to drain the coolant properly.  Up here in the great land of salt and 
corrosion at least I find the majority of them have the tabs rusted off and 
the damn $90 shield is hanging there by the two bottom bolts to the engine 
case, about to fall off.  What a joke !  Even if you could get the dams 
exhaust flange bolt or stud loose why would you want to risk disturbing the 
exhaust flange gasket and have a leak that will be even harder to repair just 
to remove that shield ?  Oh mister VW engineer where are you when I'm 
swearing at you under the van with all the shit falling down in my eyes ?  I 
think they did it on purpose so we would not forget them ! HA !

Cheers��

Frank Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/BusFusion/bfhome.htm">BusFusion</A> a VW Camper camping event, Almonte, ON, May 30, 31, June 1, 2, 2002
'87 Westy & Lionel Trains
Member: <A HREF="http://www.vanagon.com/">Vanagon List</A>, <A HREF="http://www.bcn.net/~limbo/">LiMBO</A>, <A HREF="http://www.westfalia.qc.ca/CIW_English.asp">IWCCC</A> & Capital City VW Club 
Vanagon/Vanagon Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/stebro.htm">STEBRO/Vanagon Stainless Steel Mufflers</A> �
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/busindex.html">Frank Condelli & Associates</A> or http://frankcondelli.com