Date:         Fri, 9 Jun 2000 08:05:15 -0700
Reply-To:     BRENT CHRISTENSEN <bchristensen@INFOGENESIS.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         BRENT CHRISTENSEN <bchristensen@INFOGENESIS.COM>
Subject:      FW (from www.vanagon.com): '87 Vanagon
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

Can anyone help this poor guy?  Sounds like he has really been given the
royal treatment by his local dealer...

As usual, please respond to him and not me!

Brent Christensen
'89 GL Syncro Westy
Santa Barbara, CA


-----Original Message-----
From: GARY TRENT [mailto:IMUSACC@worldnet.att.net]
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2000 4:43 AM
To: info@vanagon.com
Subject: '87 Vanagon


Dear Sirs;
    I have been plagued by a problem that simply refuses to surface for the
VW Dealer. What it is is that the shift pattern and gear engagment are
really fine, then I'll try to down shift and it will resist and act like it
just tried to go into reverse. Other times it goes into third instead of
first, though it feels like first. At a stop light (from a stop) I usually
have to go to reverse, often with difficulty, and then to first position
before letting out the clutch. It also jumps out of gear unless I hold it in
place, this was this am, and seemed to jump out as I decelerated. The dealer
told me yesterday that everything looked fine, linkages etc, and they
changed the shift coupler (an Independent VW center in St. Mary's , Ga. said
they didn't have one and I needed one.) All this surface acouple of months
ago as the gas tank was deteriorating and clogging the fuel pump, $500.00
later and I now have a new tank, but when all this occured it killed the
fuel pump, (I had replaced it only five or six months before) so the Indep.
tech put a filter between the tank and pump to preserve the new pump til I
could get the tank replaced. Not knowing what was happening, and enroute to
Orlando from Savannah, I noticed a significant, and sudden loss of power as
I pressed on the accelerator though the van kept going slower, so I down
shifted, and see-sawed back and forth between third and fourth, til I killed
my clutch just getting it to St. Mary's , I was between Brunswick and Jax as
it happened. They installed a new clutch -during the next week, needless to
say Orlando was out of the question . ( I have 2wd, water cooled)

I like my VW but I have about reached my frustration level since the dealer
insists they can find nothing wrong. The bill was $1500.00 ( not including
the clutch and pump installed at  @ St. Marys an additional $600.00), and
other than a new shift coupler and gas tank & diagnostic I'm no better off
than I was. Anybody else had this problem?

Gary Trent
Savannah, Ga.


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