Date:         Wed, 8 Nov 1995 23:19:44 -0500
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         SkiDooer@aol.com
Subject:      Re: Argh! My transmission went kaput!

In a message dated 95-11-08 12:23:55 EST,
Steven=Huss%Sales%TM@banyan.bv.tek.com writes:

>While in third gear I 
>came to a stop and to my horror I could not get it into neutral. After 
>frantically working the lever I was able to get into neutral and then 
>into first gear. While doing this I encountered great resistance a

Steve,

My '87 Syncro did a similar thing about a month ago. I immediately checked
all the shifter linkage to make sure it was greased and not binding anywhere.
Found no obvious problem. Then I drained the oil in the tranny and refilled
with new oil & the shifting improved significantly, though it still would not
come out of 3rd into neutral easily. And when it did, neutral seemed hard to
find although it would go directly into 4th without too much pressure. After
500+/- miles, I drained and changed the trans oil again and the shifting has
gotten much better. It has been about 1500 miles now since the first sign of
trouble. If it never gets worse, I can live with it.

On the other hand, Brian's post explains what's going on inside and I'd sure
like to see inside, but until it gets worse than it is right now, I'll keep
on going. Hope this helps.

Good luck,

Dan