For what its worth...Rick Long has been doing tranny's a long time and is
very knowledgable.
 I use his remachined sliders in my rebuilds as an extra precaution against
popping out of gear.
He is one of the 4 or 5  in the country (including myself of course) that I
know does high quality work and is a nice guy to boot.

Daryl of AA Transaxle
Duvall, WA. (Seattle area)
1-877-377-0773 toll free
425-788-4070
aatransaxle.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "george packard" <georgepackard@MCTTELECOM.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 5:34 PM
Subject: Opinions on tranny rebuilds from Long Enterprises?

> Anybody had experience with a rebuilt vanagon tranny from Long
> Enterprises in Sebastopol, CA?
>
> I had a long phone chat with Mr. Long (I think his first name was Bob),
> and came away pretty much sold on what he knows and what he says he
> does,  but he wants $1200 for his rebuilds, and so I want some
> independent opinions about his work.
>
> His URL is http://www.longenterprises.com/index.html.  Also, in
> reference to a recent thread on trannys, here's the info on design
> problems and fixes with the 3rd/4th gear hub.
> http://volksweb.relitech.com/091trans.htm
>
>   (Long uses the new design hub in his rebuilds.)
>
> I've got an '86 Westy Weekender (200K miles) stored in Los Altos (SF
> Bay area) which I bought knowing it had a bad pinion bearing in the
> tranny.
>
> I have heard bad stories about sloppy rebuilds, and didn't really want
> to buy a used tranny unless I knew its history, and since I'm planning
> on keeping this Weekender for a long time, I only want to fool around
> with the tranny once.
>
> Feel free to email me off-list at  george@parrotcreek.com
>
> George in NH
> '82 Westy, '86 Westy Weekender, '87 Vanagon GL