That is the breather opening. As the box heats and cools, there needs to
be a place for air to enter and exit. If this breather is blocked or
clogged, then oil will get forced past the seals.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Tom Young
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 8:02 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: My Transmission has a hole in it!!!

Hi all:

In preparation for swapping the transmissions between my Vanagon and
Westy I
dropped the transmission from the Vanagon first.  I took it into the
garage
to do a little cleaning.  At one point I rolled the transmission on its
side
and was cleaning away when I noticed gear oil was pouring out of the
transmission!  It looked like oil was leaking past the top bolt of the
gearshift housing (front of transmission.)

I quickly righted the trans and, after cleaning a pint or so of oil off
the
garage floor, took a closer look at the place on the gearshift housing
where
the leak seemed to be occurring.  Right by the bolt I thought was the
culprit there's a small hole - looks to be an "on purpose" hole - from
which
I suspect the oil was actually leaking.

Looking at the Bentley illustration on 35.6 it shows the inside of the
gearshift housing and there looks to be some sort of slot or hole right
where I was seeing my hole on the outside.  You can see it again in the
lower right hand illustration on 35.7.

Is this some sort of "overflow" relief hole in case someone pumps too
much
gear oil in the trans?  It's just something I've never seen before, and
I've
had a Vanagon trans in my hand a time or two.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Young                       '81 Vanagon
Lafayette, CA 94549         '82 Westfalia
---------------------------------------------------------------