Today I dropped my spare to check it's condition (found it's "Born on"
date to be 1988!)   I recall just sticking an old wheel with a fairly good
appearing tire mounted, one I got with a set of give-away steel wheels,
into my spare carrier and thinking...'better check this sometime.. but for
now it's gonna have to do..."    I just found the front tire on a
motorcycle I recently got was 9yrs old, too, despite being brand new
looking...so that inspired me to check the van spare....

  Anyhow, while in there I decided to lubricate all the shifting mechanism
at the bottom of the stick, the end of the long shift rod, the bottom of
the delrin 'ball' and the fulcrums (don't know the Bentley term for these,
my book is buried in the van).   Really easy on my 84 5sp manual...just
four 10mm(?) nuts and the housing that holds the shift pivots and encloses
the bottom of the stick as it emerges from the floor, that comes right
off.   I cleaned that all up inside and put some white grease wherever I
saw clean bare shiny metal, where it actually wears as you shift.   Put
that back together, put a good tire in the clam shell and went on back
(underneath the van) along the whole length of the shifter linkage, using
my can of spray chain lube on all the delrin bushings and the pivot points.

  What a great thing to do.   Before, my van shifted fine...no problems,
but it wasn't smooth.   I thought it was just the complex nature of all
that distance and all those connections and joints that made it shift a
little stiff.  It always has felt a bit stiff, though in the past when I
squirt the bushings with spray lube, it got somewhat better...But cleaning
the inside of the box in the spare and putting grease on those 'posts' that
the stick levers off of to move the linkage properly....that was probably
the key..

  I'd say it's quite a good and easy thing to do for your van (Hi Scott...I
know you LOVE oiling stuff)   Worth getting a little dirty to have the
shifter be "Buttery-smooth".....a term often used to describe the ride of
tubular bicycle tires as compared to modern bike tires.

  Don Hanson