Dear Vanagon Friends,

as I am new to this community at first a little introduction:

My name is Johannes and I grew up in Germany only a few kilometers
away from the Westfalia production site. I recently bought a 81 2.0l
AC T3 (fuel injection, manual transmission)  in Vancouver and drove
this baby all the way to Montreal. Epic drive in beautiful spring
weather! On the road I picked up a couple of problems, as I had no
time to conduct a full overhaul before I left.
I really appreciate this mailing list and am astonished by the
enthusiasm you guys help each other!

To start with the most urgent problem. At Lake Superior my 4th gear
stopped its duty. When I bought the van the 4th gear already popped
out whenever I shifted it. Long term thinking, I got myself an
elastic and fixated the gear shift handle with it when in 4th gear.
Worked fine for the first 3000km. However now the 4th gear pops even
with the elastic. Apparently the rest of the gear got grind away by
the constant friction. Going with 60kmh on the single lane highways
was neither a pleasure for me nor for everybody else on the road...

Therefore I definitely have to address this problem first. Do you
guys know, if I can just get another 4th gear and apply it or do I
need to replace the whole transmission? Do you know where I can get a
new gear or respectively a new transmission? Do you have a
recommendation for a good mechanic in montreal who can help me with
that?

Thank you guys already. Looking forward to your replies!

Cheers, Johannes