I would say in that case..
where you can't get it in any gear with the engine running..
the clutch is failing to DISengage .

and .....it's not really true that the van can't go anywhere that situation.
It's tricky ..
but you get the van pointed where you want to go,
you fire it up in neautral and let it run a minute so it starts easily,
then shut it off,
put the shfit lever in first ..
turn the key to 'start' and off ya go !
 to shift into 2nd...
you ease off pressure on the gears ...like not accelerating or decelerating
..
and 'fiddle' the lever into 2nd...and go through that gear.

you can't stop of course, unless you kill the engine and start all over..
but with skill, you can move a vanagon a very long way under its own power
that way.

scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark" <mbrush@UMICH.EDU>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, June 04, 2011 7:22 AM
Subject: Re: Not able to engage any gear

>I had a problem recently where my clutch got lighter and lighter and it
> eventually stopped engaging. I couldn't go anywhere, so had to park in a
> nearby neighborhood (luckily close to home). Turned out to be air in the
> clutch line - bled it - and I was good to go.
>
> On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 10:08 PM, Kevin Plichta
> <plichtakevin@hotmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Looking for some wisdom.
>> My 91 stock manual, I can not get it to engage in any gear while to motor
>> is running. If I start it with the clutch to the floor and in 1st it acts
>> like its  engage (wants to jump forward).
>> I have check the master and slave clutch cylinders and they are not
>> leaking
>> and seem to move when the clutch is pushed down. Seems that with the
>> motor
>> running makes it not want to go into any gears and the motor off goes
>> easily
>> into all the gears? What is different when running or not?
>> Thanks for your help.
>> Kevin Plichta
>>
>
>
> Mark - 1990 Westy - 2.1 manual