Date:         Tue, 4 Nov 2003 06:42:41 -0600
Reply-To:     John Rodgers <jh_rodgers@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Rodgers <jh_rodgers@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Subject:      Re: wearing down my westy
Comments: To: phlogiston@ISPWEST.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I had hard shifting problems on my 88 GL. A change to Redline MT90 
solved that problem for me. You might try draining, flushing and 
refilling the tranny with the Redline product. Just may work.

You may well have loose CV bolts. What you describe sounds exactly like 
that. I have had this happen twice on my vans. Periodically check the 
bolts to be sure they are tight to the torque specs. Can cause damage if 

not maintained in a secure manner. If it turns out that you have worn CV 

issues, don't screw with it. Change the suckers and get the problems 
behind you.

regards,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver
Chelsea, AL

Bravo Sierra wrote:

>i just completed a 2 month, 15k mile tour of the country in my '86 westy.  all in all my van  was very mechinically fortuitus for the duration of the trip, but she did develop two annoying issues during the last 5k miles that i'd like to adress now that i'm home.
>
>first, it has become very difficult to shift into first or second gear.  it often takes signifigant force and several attempts to get into gear.  there doesn't seem to be any temperature dependence (ambient or tranny) in how much effort is required.  i'm pretty confident that the clutch is disengaging all the way, so it seems that the syncros are bad for those gears, except that the tranny was supposedly rebuilt last year before i bought the van.  but i doubt the transmission fluid has been changed since then...  is it possilbe that a flush of the transmission fluid could remedy this problem?  what fluid to people reccomend? synthetic?
>
>how hard is it to remove and rebuild the vanagon tranny?  i have an unemployed friend who used to work at some transmision shop; is it likely we could do a decent job?  or is this a quirky part requiring lots of esoteric german tools to work on correctly?
>
>second, the rear end has begun intermittently making some noise.  the sound is a metallic impact kind of noise that varies with road speed.  it seems though, like it is occuring at too low a frequency to be one "clank" per wheel revoultion, ie only 2 or 3 per second at 20 m/h.  it *only* occurs under positive torque (ie acceleration, not braking or engine braking) and gets louder the more torque is applied.  it sounds like the noise is coming from the left side, but it goes away if i turn right while accelerating.  does this sound like a bad cv joint?  the weird thing is that i first heard this sound at least 5k miles ago and then it went away for 2 or 3 thousand and has been on and off since then, more or less at random.  i checked out the boots and they all look intact.  do you guys think these symptoms sound like a cv joint, or something else?  is it possible to take apart the half shafts apart and put the middle piece back in backwards to get a few thousand more miles?
>
>  
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