Hi Keith,

Time to climb under and inspect the linkage on the tranny. If it's
loose, it will be very hard to engage first gear, and a little
difficult in second. I discovered this back in June with a 1982
westy... the bolt holding the linkage together was about two turns
loose and the shifter couldn't pull the selector ball over quite far
enough. Tightening it up made a world of difference.

If the synchro tranny is different, please disreagard, I'm not at all
familiar with that one.

Happy Trails,

Greg Potts
1973/74/75/77/79 Westfakia "Bob the Tomato"
www.pottsfamily.ca/westfakia
www.busesofthecorn.com

On 29-Nov-06, at 7:09 PM, Keith Ovregaard wrote:

> My 90 Syncro tranny is hard to get into first when it's cold, too, but
> we are talking 40's or 50's, not 20's. Redline in tranny & front diff.
> Recently cleaned & lubed shifter when the Berg short shift kit was
> installed. I have to COMPLETELY stop the van to get it into gear.
> After
> a few minutes, all's normal. I think my 84 did the same thing. Is this
> normal, volks?
>
> Keith
>
>
> On Nov 29, 2006, at 1:13 PM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
>
>> Date:    Wed, 29 Nov 2006 12:21:25 -0800
>> From:    Nathaniel Poole <npoole@TELUS.NET>
>> Subject: <no subject>
>>
>> I'm running my 80 Riviera just fine in this weather (handles the
>> crappy
>> roads far better than the wife's Toyota), but until it warms up it
>> feels as
>> if the tranny is filled with grease, I mean really stiff and hard to
>> find
>> first. It's not that cold, they say 20 below with wind chills the
>> last
>> few
>> days, but I wonder if the last PO put in the right weight of oil
>> in the
>> tranny. Is this normal for these rigs? I've never noticed such a
>> change in
>> any vehicle I've driven before except when it hits something like 30
>> below
>> or more.