Todd,

Check your rear brakes carefully, cause it sounds like one of the rear
brake shoes may have unbonded a lining.    Turns around a bit and then
wedges and locks the wheel up.   Might also be that one of the retention
springs has come loose and the brake self-actuates in one direction.

I had something similar (loose lining) happen on another vehicle.

Dave
90 Westy

At 10:06 AM 8/19/02 -0700, Todd Last wrote:
>I need the help of the collected wisdom of the Vanagon group as I have a
>never encountered before problem.
>My van is a 1988 Westfalia with 152,000 miles.
>
>When attempting to back out of my parking space this morning, the van
>would roll about 5 feet, then stop.
>It felt as if I were hitting a curb or one of the wheels was chocked. I
>could move forward with no problem to the limit of the parking space,
>about 6 feet,
>but in reverse the van would consistently stop.
>
>I had recently worked on the brakes, so I thought that perhaps I had
>neglected to tighten something, but a visual inspection showed nothing
>out of place.
>Then I tried rolling backwards in neutral. While I could roll back a
>little bit farther than while in reverse, the van still stopped.
>The transmission has been working fine with no problems shifting and no
>noise.
>
>Can anyone give me suggestions on what to look for and what it might be?
>
>thanks,
>Todd