In a message dated 1/18/99 5:01:42 AM Eastern Standard Time,
Vanadiesel@AOL.COM writes:

> Suddenly today I starting getting a feeling that something was grabbing a
>  little as I would come to a stop. Also several times I had trouble getting
> it
>  to go in gear when I was going slow, and had the gears grind as I put it
> into
>  fourth a few times. The clutch is not slipping though. Any ideas??

I has a similar thing happen to my 87 Fox. In my case it turned out to be the
pilot bearing ($ 7.00 part, two days to find it, replace it along with the
clutch and the TB since the whole thing was apart).

It took a while to figure it out, until we found a couple of needles from the
bearing in the bellhousing. I'm not sure if the Vanagon is of the same design,
but mine didn't look too robust. It had a plastic retainer cage which, I
theorize, would melt and then stick to the shaft and grab a bit, melt and then
do it all over.

Good luck,

Paul 89 Carat
Very close to a decision on a Eurospec or Audi transplant