Date:         Mon, 13 May 1996 13:54:42 -0700 (PDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "A Brandy Psmythe" <brandys@ichips.intel.com>
Subject:      valve adjust  and shift lever maintenance

Hi all,
        Did a little maintenance this weekend.  Adjusting the valves
is getting easier each time, getting used to using the feeler gauge I
guess.

I also lubed up the gear shift lever.  WOW!  So much hardened crud,
the bottom part of the lever was no longer round, more like jagged
rock.  The bracket, stop plate, and floor pan had rust all over them.
So I got out my drill with the wire 3M paint/rust remover wheel, and
went to town.  Cleaned them all down to bare metal with the drill and
some sandpaper.  Sprayed it all with a few coats of primer, and
procedded to fill the cup (where the shift lever goes into), the
bracket, and the ball with multipurpose grease.  TALK ABOUT GETTING
MESSY!  Put it all back together, NO THIRD OR FOURTH GEAR!!!!  and you
don't need to press down to get reverse!!  Take it apart, Oh, the stop
plate is backwards, put it back together, and viola.  Smoother and
quieter shifting.  I can still feel a bit of resistance when going
into 1st and 2nd, but it is much better (it was bone dry when I went
in for a look).  Next weekend I'll look at the front and rear shift
rod and those peices and try and lube the sliding parts and look
around.

Piece by piece, and step by step, it'll be a forever car yet.

take care all,
	  brandy

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