I really like hearing back and having it be a simple fix.
Everyone thinks the worst in the beginning.
Do a little bit of snooping around under the van and usually something will jump out at you.
Enjoy fourth gear.

dylan

Florian Speier <groups.florian@GMAIL.COM> wrote: thanks to Dylan and Dennis' comments, the problem is solved, and it was soo
simple.

I was starting to do the shim mod described by dylan when I asked my wife to
help me out by shifting the gears while i was lying under the car and watch
the rear shift linkage. I saw that the fourth gear blocks long before the
linkage mount blocks the movement. However i saw then that the linkage at
the tranny swivels  between 1-2 and 3-4, making it interfere in 4 with the
coolant return pipe at the point where it connects to a hose! The pipe was
slightly moved out of position because my subaru conversion requires it to
connect to a stainless steel pipe on top of the  engine via a very rigid
marine hose.
Well, long story short, two cableties later the problem was solved.
thanks everybody again.

florian