The bottom line is you are on borrowed time with this unit, with the
ultimate result you could need to add the  core charge to the cost of your
rebuild.  Bits of hardened metal are swirling around in your oil and
circulating through the transmission and transaxle. Once that hardened
surface is lost, complete failure is rapid.

BTW, I'm amazed to see that people have replaced the input shaft bearing
with the shaft in place.  Lots of skill and patience required to get that
bearing out in situ.

I don't do my own transmission work, so I've had Daryl do three for me over
the years:  www.aatransaxle.com He'll send you a box for $50, or you can
often order an off the shelf unit and ship your (currently) rebuildable core
back in the box and save the $50.  Core charge is $500 if yours is toast
(usually case damage).

Good luck!

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
ralph meyermann
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2013 7:57 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Noisy transaxle??

Pretty sure that my input shaft bearing is loose/going out, but I think
there are other worn parts that need attention.