Well, I finally solved about 90 percent of the problems I was having getting
from third to neutral and third to fourth gears on my '88 GL.  Thought I'd
seen some postings from folks with similar problems, this might help.

While under the van, I had my wife shift gears (motor not running, of
course), and it looked as if the linkage (normally covered by a boot as it
enters the transmission) might have a little play.  Most of the boot was
gone, but the linkage still looked clean and greasy.  There are two bolts
that hold a bracket through which the shift rod passes.  Removing  the upper
bolt and loosening the bottom bolt of the bracket lets the "cup" portion of
the linkage separate from the rest, revealing a _nylon?_ ball that acts as
the _bearing_, if you will, for the rest of the linkage.  Well, the "cup"
that the ball sits in was about one-third ful of a compacted grease/dirt
mixture that had become solid enough to cause the ball to raise slightly out
of the cup, intsead of transferring the motion to the rest of the linkage.
 Solution was to soak the grease/dirt mixture for about half an hour (I used
WD-40), the scoop the softened gunk out, re-pack with grease, put the whole
shebang back together, and _presto_! No more resistance at all when shifting.
(sorry, Joel, all it took was a dab of grease!)  tranny fluid is next.

BTW, sorry for the lack of technical references to the linkage dohickey's; I
still don't have my Bentley manual yet :)

Cliff

'88 Vanagon GL, shifting much better now, TYVM!