mblair0322@YAHOO.COM
vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com

Difficult First Gear

Mike and Fellow Listers,

Mike,
If your Vanagon goes into first properly after you fiddle with the
placement of the shifter (working it against the reverse detent etc), and
you experience no other problems, I think that you should approach the
problem as "shift linkage no longer moving enough to engage first".  In my
experience, this is usually caused by some portion of the shift linkage,
including the shifter, coming loose, or wear in the bushings which carry
the shifter either at the shift lever or at the transmission end.  If you
have worn bushings, I strongly recommend you purchase and replace ALL of
them.

If the bushings are good and nothing is loose, you can adjust the relative
position of the shifter to the shift rod by loosening the clamp which
holds the shifter to the rod, detaching them, rotating the rod slightly
and reclamping them.  This is a trial and error operation...  easy but can
be time consuming.

Regards,
Jon B Kanas

Lockheed Martin Corporation
Flight Systems Spacecraft Test Lab
303-977-6354
jon.b.kanas@lmco.com