Hello fellow listee's

81 aircooled vanagon, manual transmission.

local shop here in Eureka, CA : Honest Engine
rebuilt transmission from: German Transaxle, from Bend, OR

The short of it:

wife was driving to SFO and dropped 3rd gear while downshifting/'climbing

AAA towed to Honest Engine about a month ago.

H.E. removed the old one, swaped it with the new rebuilt from G.T. and
said they heard funny trans sounds, so they sent it back.
G.T. send a second, same issue. Sent this one back as well.
Waited for new one to arrive, installed, same issue. NOW they realize
its probably something else and have already lost their asses on it,
so I can either give them the word to start ripping everything out of it
till they find the real source, or 'wait for whatever it is to get worse
and fail'

I guess it shifts fine, it just makes a noise while driving. they had it
up on the lift, tried to locate with stethescope, no dice.

I just dont know how I feel about it. the last transmission did make a
somewhat loud noise while driving, but I thought the new tranny would
correct that.
I know the trans had to be replaced anyway, its just odd that a shop
that works on these went through three transmissions trying to track
down the cause of this noise and
failed to do so.... I doubt I'll find it on my own. they checked the
clutch and it seems ok, swaped out the axles with rebuilt ones and that
wasnt it either.

I guess its time to bring it into another shop to get a new 'eye' on the
project.

I do have faith in Honest Engine, at least for one or two of their guys
that ive spoken with anyway, so I dont think its their own lack of
knowledge.

Anyway, any tips, suggestions or misc tomfoolery is welcome....

cr