After reading a few posts about hard shifting manual transmissions
and realizing that mine was having this symtom especially from 1st gear to
second, I thought it would be a good idea to try changing the oil.  I
tried to find the Redline that was mentioned but no luck around here.
Finally went to Canadian tire to see what they had.  I came out with three
liters of Motomaster Semi-Synthetic 75w90 and two 250ml bottles of Slick 50
ManTrans.  So last Saturday I crawled under my van to begin the task.
Well, those nice German folk could have made those two plugs, the drain
and the filler more accessable, NO ?!   After much ado I got the drain out
and finally ! the filler plug, the hardest, then got my trusty transmission
fluid pump and went about filling the pump and filling the
transmission.  That took a while !  The oil that came out was BLACK.
AND...the drain plug magnet had a fair amount of metal particles attached
to it ????????  I guess that would be normal after 260,000km and not ever
having the oil changed before !   Well, the good news is that it was all
well worth the trouble.  My transmission shifts much smoother now, especially
when cold.  Thanks to all who posted messages about the hard shifting
transmissions which got me going on this one and I hope my message will
encourage others to go save their transmissions before it's too late.

Cheers

Frank

--
              *  Frank Condelli  *  Almonte, Ontario, Canada  *
                      *  ad793@Freenet.carleton.ca  *
                   '87 VW Westy, '69 MGB & Lionel Trains
                http://members.aol.com/RAlanen/index.html