Downshifting into second made this terrible whinning noise....

        After being told by a (shady) shop near work that it was the tranny
that making the noise and will have to be replaced.... I, brought it to a
more respected VW shop (Art Stiegel's in Sunnyvale) after work last night.
Their opinion is that it ain't the tranny, but instead the shift coupler.
So, we crawled under the rig, looked at it and noticed that the boot was
totally missing and aparently for some time as the joint was full of grime
and mud and whatnot. So we  pulled it off, cleaned it, put it back on and it
is much better.   Still no boot, I will try to get to that soon....
        thanks for all of the help, monday was yucky!
        -Matthew