On Sun, 27 Nov 1994, Stuart Hutton wrote:

> transmission now begins to show problems.  Specifically, here are the
> following symptons:
> 1st is hard to get ... and it always grinds when I try to get it.
> 2nd is getting harder to get
> 3rd ... 4th can be gotten with double clutching.
> reverse: it got stuck there and would not come out for a while.
> Sometimes I hit reverse trying to get 1st.  That's always a problem.
> There is some leakage of (of all things, oil) around some type of thing
> which is situated close to my starter motor.  It seems to be connected
> to the clutch in some way.
> Oh, probably one of the most telling symptons is this: the clutch does not
> seem to fully disengage.
> My wonderful mentor in things vanagon (Mark Johnson) says it's probably
> the slave cylinder.  Does anyone else have ideas and also, where is a 
> source for these things that won't force me not to eat for a while?
> Thanks!
> Stuart Hutton

Before anything else, find the slave cylinder and examine closely for
leaking fluid, (on diesel vanagon trans, the clutch slave cyl is in the
lefthand side of the car, for what is worth). Anyway, when found, try
pulling the rubber boot off a bit. When the cylinder is worn and starts to
leak, fluid often collects in the boot before leaking out and down.
You may be lucky and only need the clutch bled, like you do with brakes.
This happened to me once, the clutch slowly needed more "push down to the
floor" to engage 1st and reverse. Bleeding the system brought it back to
normal and, miracles of miracles, it has stayed adjusted for the last year
or so. The fluid that was bled out was quite grotty, so I really flushed
the system well, bleeding the brakes too. It happened to me in the
wintertime also, although Victoria is NOT Red Deer, thank god :)

Alistair