Well I�ve now got about 4k miles on a rebuilt tranny in my 86 Syncro GL. 4k
smooth and worry free miles. I bought the Van with about 114k miles and
although I had never before had a Syncro or a Vanagon, I had wanted one from
the moment I first saw a Syncro Westy  - at the top of a very rugged jeep
trail near Shoshone National Forest in Montana back in about 1994. (I had just
picked my way up about 5 miles of steep, rocky jeep trail in a rented Ford
Explorer. At the top, I saw a truly amazing and envious sight - a white Westy
Syncro, top up, and two people sitting quite happily next it, eating dinner-
listees?) So when I finally bought one, I was real happy, completely oblivious
to all the quirks that go along with such a cool machine until one day, while
coming back from a visit to the Museum of Natural History in New York City
with the family, we return to my parked Syncro and there is this guy next to
it checking it out. It was Derek Drew. So we talk, and he tells me about the
list, which I had just signed onto, but was not really educated by, yet. The
one thing Derek said that stuck in my mind was �If you have 114k on this
vehicle and the tranny has never been out, start shopping around for another,
now.� So I learned that these things go and go it did. Luckily for me it
lasted for another 23k before the tranny blew fourth gear. But when it did, it
started a couple months of, chasing a used tranny, getting a bad used tranny,
(from a place in So. Mass, through a place in Connecticut called Goldies,
beware) chasing my money, getting my money back, then finally hooking up with
Dennis Haynes� on Long Island. Dennis checked it out told me the scope of the
rebuild, he rebuilt it, and 4k miles later, the Syncro is going great, the
tranny shift lever does not wobble, the tranny is quiet, the shifting is
smooth, I�m zooming around, thanks Dennis. I can�t wait for some decent snow
fall around here this winter.

-Raul Cisneros
86 Smooth Syncro GL
87 not as smooth, Syncro Westy
Nyack, NY