There are no electrical controls for any parts of the AT.  Sounds
like he's got strictly mechanical problems.  There are the contacts
in the shifter you mention, but they only operate the back up lights
and starter interlock.
Edward

At 09:12 PM 6/30/2007, William Leslie wrote:
>Your Westy was sitting for 5 years?
>
>
>
>Have you checked the contacts in the shifter housing?  It could be a
>simple case of them being so corroded that either no or occasional
>contact is being made.  Will it start in both N and P?  Does the back
>up light turn on in reverse?  The signal for the back up light comes
>through the contacts in the shifter tower.
>
>
>
>I got to the contacts by taking off the shifter handle via a set screw
>and the housing by screws hidden under the carpet to either side of the
>housing base.  My housing was full - a huge ball of mud courtesy of a
>colony of mud daubers (wasp) - they were all dead. The electrical
>contacts were very corroded...  Also check all the contacts at the
>converter.  After 5 years they might be making intermittent contact -
>or not at all.
>
>
>
>As I remember it these Westy automatic transmissions are the same as
>used in thousands of Audis and other European brands.  It should be no
>problem getting a transmission shop to work on it.  Autozone carries
>the transmission filter, etc.
>
>
>
>
>
>Bill L
>
>'89 Westy Automatic
>
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----From: Randy C. Nunes
><randycnunes@YAHOO.COM>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COMSent: Sat, 30 Jun
>2007 8:07 amSubject: 1984 Westfalia Automatic Transmission
>
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