I have drained the old oil out of many dozens of Vanagon manual trannys.
That large fuzz ball is pretty normal even in well working trannys.
Obviously that metal came from somewhere but the tranny could still have
years of life remaining. Pinch the fuzz off the drain plug and look at
it carefully on a piece of white paper. If it is all just tiny bits
strung together by the magnet, don't sweat it. The magnet can make the
pieces look large so you need to remove them  and spread them out to be
certain of their size. If some of the pieces are much bigger or look
like teeth or foil, rebuild time for sure.

If it shifts fine and does not make too much noise, go for it. If it
sometimes gets hard to shift in/out of 3 or 4 when hot, it is nearly
done for and could completely fail at any time leaving you stranded.
Bearing noises can get loud but not fail for years more. With a Syncro
tranny I would get it fixed early on but 2wd not unless I had long term
travel plans.

Mark

Zoltan wrote:

>Hi guys,
>I took out the drain plug from the transmission and it had a little "punk hairdo" on the magnet.  The tiny filings stacked about half inch long in each direction.  I am wondering what the List would say to this.  I have already asked our transmission master about it.  And, as I expected, he does not think its worth installing.
>Zoltan
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