When attempting to back out fo my driveway to go to an art show, my 88
GL van - manual tranny - locked in reverse and I could not get it out.
All the messing with it did nothing to resolve the problem. The final
solution was to replace the shifter arm on the side of the transmission.
When that was done, it sure shifted better - but I realized it still
didn't shift quite right, so I installed a shifter repair kit up front
at the shifter stick mount in the floor. That added the final touches on
a full repair. now it shifts like it came from the show room floor.

You could have an internal failure of some sort inside the tranny, but I
can't tell you how to test for that. But if you have lots of miles on
your tranny and the parts I mentioned have never been changed out - do
yourself a favor now that there is an issue - replace those parts and
enjoy shifting again - and it will be a long time before you need
anything else done in that regard, other than periodic lubrication.

Good  luck,

John Rodgers
Chelsea, AL

David Wilhite wrote:
> I've finally had a mechanical difficulty after many years of driving my Vanagon and it happened just 20 miles from where we were trying to get to for the day.  I drove the last bit at 30-40 mph because I am not able to shift into 3rd or 4th gear.
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> While checking things out, I took the shifter coupling off at the tranny and I am not able to get the plunger shaft to move back and forth for the 3rd and 4th gear positions.  It does move side to side like it's supposed to, but won't rotate forward or backwards.  So evidently, something has happened in the shifter area.
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> Does anybody have some experience with this occurrence?  Is there something I can pull a part and repair?  Anybody in the Lewisburg, Columbia, Mt. Pleasant,TN area that happens to have an extra tranny around?  Thanks for any input/help.
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> David Wilhite
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> 84' Westy
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> Middle TN
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