> 
> 2) It's my first auto vanagon. The shifter up front has very "soft" 
> detents for
> the shift selector. The are also off by 1...D=N, 2=D, etc. Is there any 
> way to
> improve this and or the soft feel?

Like Dennis said, not much can bee done about the soft detents, as they're 
in the transmission. You can, however, adjust the linkage so it matches the 
indicators up front. Remove the spare tire and crawl underneath and you'll 
see where the lever comes down and connects to a bar heading to the rear. 
They're tied together with a nut and bolt (13mm, bring a wrench & socket 
both, one to hold the other to turn). The Bentley procedure is:
1) make sure transmission is in park.
2) crawl under and loosen nut & bolt (do not remove)
3) crawl out, put selector lever in park
4) crawl under, grab horizontal bar and put rearward pressure on it while 
you
5) tighten nut and bolt

If this doesn't do it, your selector cable is probably toast