There are no synchronizers on the reverse gear unless it is a syncro. On
any manual transmission car, it is a good practice to depress the
clutch, put in a forward gear to stop the input shaft, and then shift
into reverse.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf
Of Jeremy Speer
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 8:07 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Growling into reverse

Folks,

I was out at my Vanagon guru's place today to pay for a replacement gas
tank (he'll do the install later next week). I was sitting in the van,
idling in neutral foot off the clutch. I went to leave, depressed the
clutch and began to shift into reverse. There was a faint growl of
gears. I paused, not forcing the shifter, the growl stopped and it slid
easily into reverse.

My guru freaked.

"What was that??"

"Oh, that always happens when going into reverse." True statement. In
fact every manual transmission car i've ever owned has done this.

"Your transmission is probably near death! The synchronizers are shot."

"What? Well, it's an aging rebuild, but it shifts fine... just needs a
second or two when going into reverse."

"no no, that's a sure sign... you should look into a rebuild."

"but... but it shifts fine... no whine, no need to double clutch going
from 4th to 3rd or 3rd to 2nd at reasonable speeds." All true.

"no no, this things headed south."

My question: am i nuts, or is he overreacting?

While i'm on the topic can somebody provide the contact info for German
Transaxle, just in case :-D

Best,

-jspeer
'89 Westy GL, "Mystery Machine"