I'm dealing with such issues on both my 90 and my 83 diesel. The diesel
has serious slop in the transmission end of the linkage. Bushing is
bad, "cup" that holds the ball on the shift lever rocks back and forth
1/16", and the inside of the cup has about 1/32" of material "honed"
out by wear over its 230K miles. So I've adjusted as best I could, and
am waiting on the new parts to come in. You might go back in that area
and check.

I don't know what the problem is with the 90, except the 190K on it. I
have only had a few minutes to play with it over the last month or so,
but it wouldn't go into first at all sometimes, making it very awkward
to start up hills. The condition only lasted a day or two before I
played with it per Bentley, and it's much much better. In fact it's
tolerable, but not perfect.

I think some more adjusting could improve it, but it might make it
worse.

You might try taking yours back to where it was adjusted and tell them
you're not satisfied with the job. They'll probably say get a rebuilt
transmission, which we probably both need to do, but you can see what
they say. If they didn't examine the part I mention above for wear,
then you should check that out.

It's possible but less likely that slot has come into the front end,
too, making shifting harder. My two were perfect up front, so it
seemed, but the back end was a different story.

By the way, they will all shift pretty much perfectly with the motor
off. It's when you start moving that the trouble starts : )

Jim

On Aug 31, 2004, at 6:19 PM, Steve Shane wrote:

> So a few months ago my 87 Westy has been having a difficult time
> shifting
> into first gear. It shifts fine when the motor is off, and only first
> gear
> has a problem while driving> I had my shift linkage adjusted, and that
> helped, but it is not perfect.
>
> What are your sagely thoughts on what it might be????
> - Thanks
> Shane
>
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