[Yawn]...I drove a '70 1/4 camper bus that was given to me, from SF down to
the Guatemalan border and back to Olympia.  My buddy and I cobbled together
the basket-case engine with spare parts and minimal investment.  The engine
did just peachy...the transaxle, not so much.  At 350k miles the original
tranny finally decided to drop gears--second and fourth to be specific.
Limped it 300 miles back to Acapulco with just first and third, through the
steep and rolling hills of SW Mexico.  Brand new clutch was toasty.  Found
some guy in a roadside shack to do a quickie "rebuild", and we were back on
our way.  Yeah, VW engines suck...pffft, whatever