just a little story to encourage those sluggish and procrastinating among
you, with regard to replace the brake fluid (which is also the clutch
fluid on the vanagons):

one year, on my 80 bus, a cold snap came through and suddenly my clutch
pedal went plummeting to the floor. gadzooks, i've lost my clutch, thinks
i!! so i drive gingerly to the mechanic, 60 miles away. first thing he
does is bleed the brake/clutch fluid, paying special attention to bleeding
the clutch slave cylinder.

surprise! i have a new clutch!  it seems that dirty old brake fluid can
contain a bunch of different crud and some of that crud can get trapped
in some of the seals, especially when cold weather keeps the rubber seals
kinda shrunk in size. and this allows the fluid to just go rushing past
the seals ... making it seem for all the world like the clutch is gone.

just a thought. :)
joel