Thanks all - I'm all for putting more time and money into the linkage - but
before I do that, I wanted to perform a simple test - one that would tell me
whether my problem was the transmission or the linkage: What do you all
think of this test:

With the linkage un-hooked from the transmission, crawl under the bus, and
manually shift the transmission into second. Start her up, and let off on
the clutch. If it goes, I'm good - if not - or it pops out - I'm bad.

Mark

On 10/18/05, Greenamyer, William L <william.l.greenamyer@boeing.com> wrote:
>
> There is a bushing that holds the linkage. One thing that a lot of
> people overlook is the play in this bushing. If it is worn, it can
> cause all kinds of problems, especially going into first gear hard or
> not at all. There should be no play in this bushing when trying to move
> the linkage from side to side. If there is play, you need a new
> bushing.
>
> William
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Felder [mailto:felder@KNOLOGY.NET]
> Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 12:21 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: transmission shifting
>
>
> Mark;
>
> I wasted dozens of hours over several months messing with the same
> problem on my two vanagons--simultanously. While Don is right on the
> money with what he's saying, it didn't work out that I was satisfied
> with the results of what I was doing. I always stick with it, though,
> and finally see it through, but this time was an exception. I felt I was
> endangering my gearboxes so I took them both in to a good, local VW shop
> where they have lots of experience, tools, helpers, lifts and what have
> you that I don't have at home.
>
> It cost me about $55 per car, I think, as was some of the best money I
> ever spent.
>
> Bottom line, if you get to the point you just can't crawl under there
> one more time for the same result, don't pull the transmission for a
> rebuild until you've let an experienced shop have it for an hour.
>
> Jim
> On Oct 17, 2005, at 1:12 PM, Don Williams wrote:
>
> > Hi Mark,
> >
> > My experience is that linkage is enormously important and that it is
> > usually the linkage, and wrong adjustment makes you think it is the
> > transmission. At least you should work on that first since it only
> > gets
> > you dirty and angry and doesn't directly cost you money. The guides
> > to
> > the gears are on the upper part of the box that is accessed under the
> > spare tire. You can adjust the shifter by a little allen screw on the
>
> > shift so
> > that the shifting mechanism in that box is pushed up to be influenced
> > by
> > those guides. Then when you push down the shift to go into reverse,
> > you
> > are bypassing those guides.
> > The next problem is often the rod that goes back to the tranny, and
> > the
> > compression ring that allows the lateral movement of the shifter to
> > displace the vertical movement on the rod that goes into the tranny.
> > You
> > just have to play around with it (it is frustrating). Basically, a
> > tiny
> > adjustment on that ring influences whether or not a horizontal
> > movement of
> > the gear translate into engaging the gears properly. For my problem,
> > my 85
> > Westy would not go into first gear, for love or money, unless i
> pushed
> > down the shifter and bypassed the guide in that box. I thought my
> > tranny
> > was screwed up, but after dinking with it for several hours, I could
> > see
> > that if I rotated the shaft in the correct direction, I could get the
> > beast
> > in first without depressing the shift because I had increased the
> > distance
> > that the shift rod tranveled without so that I did not need to depress
> > the
> > shifter to get enough distance to go into first gear. Does that make
> > any
> > sense whatsoever??
> > Call me if it still seems weird. (360-650-3641)
> > Don
> >
> >
> >
> > From: Mark Brush <mbrush@GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject: Re: 1990 Westy - do 3 transmissions have same problem? I
> > haven't dropped the shifter box yet. I've adjusted the shifter rod so
> > tha= t
> > the lower part of the stickshift is in the right place. It doesn't
> > seem lik=
> > e
> > the stickshift hits anything in the box when in second gear.
> > With the last transmission I had, I wanted to check to see whether it
> > was
> > the transmission, or the linkage. So I un-hooked the linkage, crawled
> > under
> > the bus, and manually shifted the transmission into second. I started
> > her
> > up, and let off on the clutch, and nothing happened - so I figured I
> > had a
> > bad transmission (all the other gears engaged). Is this the best way
> to
> > check whether the problem is the trans or the linkage?
> >
>