Nice ride Mark. Congrats and welcome to the list!

When I got my current Westy (my first Vanagon) I took it to a
mechanic. He changed the tranny oil to synthetic and lubed the shift
linkage. This made a world of difference. Much smoother shifting.

You may have seen this in your lurking travels, but there is a wealth
of information in the Vanagon archives here:

http://gerry.vanagon.com/cgi-bin/wa.exe?S1=vanagon

Cheers,

Neil.

On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 12:40 PM, Mark A Kippert <vanagon@kippert.com> wrote:
> Greetings list members!
>
> I've been lurking for a short while and have just recently purchased a
> very nice 1986 Vanagon GL. At 52 years old I've been a VW fan for many
> years. I had a Bettle in my teens and later had a nice '73 bay window
> which was totaled about 25 years ago. I've wanted another VW van ever
> since. While it's in very nice condition I'll be posting questions
> about a few minor issues that I've noted and see what kind of
> improvements I can make in the future.
>
> I was lucky enough to purchase it from a 73 year old Dutch gentleman
> who was a VW mechanic many years past. For the last 35 years he's
> owned a little foreign auto repair shop/dealership specializing in
> european cars, especially early VWs. He's now semi-retired and even
> though the place is a bit run down, he seems to still enjoy working on
> the few cars that roll in, at his own pace of course.
>
> He'd owned the van since 2000 and put about 10k miles on it. The
> odometer shows 215k miles but it looks good and runs strong. He
> doesn't know (or remember) the history of the engine so I don't know
> if it's been rebuilt. It starts right up, even with the 20 something
> degree temps were having here in Indy. The tranny is a 4spd and shifts
> through all the gears but it is a bit stiff (I'm guessing due to
> limited of use). I've missed a shift once or twice because I didn't
> get a gear fully engaged. In the time he owned it he has only replaced
> the exhaust and water pump. The tires have plenty of tread but they
> have cracking in the side-walls so I'm planning to replace those soon.
>
> I could go on but I thought I would just introduce myself for now and
> say hello to the list. I have posted a page with plenty of pictures if
> anyone would like to take a peek at the van. Let me know if my $1900
> was well spent.
>
> Pics: <http://www.kippert.com/vanagon/>
>
> -Mark
>
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--
Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta "Jaco
http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines
http://web.mac.com/tubaneil
http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/

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