It is possible that you are installing the guide bracket for the shift rod
on the wrong side of the casting mount for it. The bracket goes in front of
that casting.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Mark Brush
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 11:04 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: 1990 Westy - do 3 transmissions have same problem?

Hi all,

I've been having weird transmission problems with my 1990 Westy manual
transmission. I've put in two used transmissions and the same problem still
comes up. Now I'm considering buying a remanufactured one, but I fear the
same problem will arise. Here's the problem:

My original transmission (at least I thought it was original) lost its
second gear. It first started popping out, then I'd try to hold it in gear
until it went away altogether (insert sound of grinding here). I took it to
the VW shop here and the diagnosis was "internal trans issue."

So I bought and installed a used transmission, and the same thing happened.
It wouldn't stay in second gear (fourth gear stayed in no problem).

The linkage was adjusted correctly, and I even disassembled the linkage and
shifted it into second manually (crawling under the bus), and found no gear
there. I thought - "bad luck - I got another bad transmission."

So I took it back and they gave me another one, I put it in, and this one
doesn't stay in second gear either. All the other gears seem fine.

When I was under the bus, I noticed that there were 8 bolt holes where the
front end of the transmission bolts into the frame of the bus instead of 4
("front end" meaning where the transmission bushing bolts into the frame of
the bus). It seems like a previous owner shifted the front end of the
transmission to the left by an inch (maybe the original bolt holes stripped
out). Could this possibly have an effect on second gear shifting? Are the
eight bolt holes for the transmission normal? What are the odds of having
three transmissions with bad second gears?

Thanks for any help!

Sincerely,

Mark