If you have a Hayes manual, turn to page 120.
The reverse sliding gear is a tiny little thing that doesn't appear to
have a bearing in it.
I'd speculate that it would be noisy long before a transmission would be
due to fail.
I'm also thinking that driving it until it breaks and making a decision
to replace it now equals exactly the same dollars as buying a newly
rebuilt tranny after it fails.
Pe se catch 22.
If you've been to my Fire Sale pages I think you can agree that I had the
worst case of Paranoid Maintenance Syndrome in the history of automotive
parts hoarding.
I'd thank everybody for their theories and run it till it breaks, which
could be never.

Stan Wilder

Stan Wilder
On Tue, 3 Jun 2003 21:50:08 -0400 Dennis Haynes <dhaynes@OPTONLINE.NET>
writes:
> 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"
>
>

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