Hi Matt,

My 87 wolfsburg vanagon was popping out of 4th gear last year; I drove  
it for about 6 months (approximately 20K miles as a daily driver)  
using a bungie cord from the seat belt receiver to the shift lever in  
order to hold it in 4th. After a couple months of driving it like this  
I started to hear a whining noise in 1,2 and 3. Although I was assured  
it would probably last 50K miles while making that noise, I started  
looking for another transmission.

Then back in November 2008 I was able to source a replacement  
transmission and since the swap (December 27th) it has not once popped  
out of fourth (knock on wood). No modifications were made to the shift  
mechanism when the transmission was swapped.

Reverse playing hard to get; ...that could definitely be a shift  
linkage issue. But the fourth gear popping out is caused by worn edges  
on the teeth of 4th gear and there's nothing gonna fix that without  
replacing the transmission or parts thereof.

The good news for you is that you're not nearly so far away from  
Darryl at AA transaxle; it might be best to give him a call and see  
what's involved in getting inside that transmission and making things  
right.

Happy Trails,

Greg Potts
1973 westfakia
1987 Wolfsburg weekender
www.busesofthecorn.com

Quoting Matt Thyer <matt_thyer@HOTMAIL.COM>:
> Shift box and bushing are crappy: The biggest and most annoying problem here
> is that you have to hold the stick in 4th gear when traveling at speed.
> Otherwise the stick shift pops out of 4th.  I'm pretty certain this is
> caused by wear on the bushing, but feel free to offer up advice as you feel
> necessary.  Additionally, reverse is a pain in the rear end to find.  This
> is most likely the result of worn shift box parts as there's some play in
> the stick, but once you find it the gear works great.