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Date:         Sat, 16 May 1998 23:00:22 PDT
Reply-To:     deandrew <deandrew@SOMTEL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         deandrew <deandrew@SOMTEL.COM>
Comments: To: Vanagon@Vanagon.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"; X-MAPIextension=".TXT"

I finally got my newly rebuilt tranny back into the Syncro. My van is whole again! Last year my tranny was grinding 3rd and 4th gears and leaking gear oil BAD! With the help of the list I located a rebuilder in Minnesota who came highly recommended by two listmembers. After speaking with him by phone I decided he was qualified and most of all, I liked him and trusted him with my transmission. When I was draining the transmission to remove it from the van I found BIG pieces stuck to the plug magnet. Scary stuff. When I got it on the workbench to drain the remaining oil I got even more pieces out of it. The largest piece was a half round piece of wire retaining spring, about 3 1/2 inches long and the smallest was about 1/4 x 1/4 inches. (I now know they were parts of the syncros that must have exploded.) I was advised not to rebuild but to find a good used tranny. Nahhh. Onward with plan A. What ever happens, happens.

Note: I don't recomend doing this but I drove my van for over a year and 10,000 hard miles with the grinding and leaking problems. Double clutching sucks and so does adding gear oil every week but I got real good at both! I am very stupid and lucky I didn't do permanent damage to the tranmission!! Please don't do what I did!!

Total shipping weight was 160 lbs part of which was the 20 lbs + crate I made to ship it in. I encased the whole thing with a couple of handles cut into the plywood on the short side. Probably more crate than was really needed but..... I haven't driven the van very far from home yet but it does work and sound smooooth. It seems that every time I think it's ready to go something else unrelated to the tranny goes wrong. Coolant leaks, busted temp sensor, bad hose I can't get to with out removing the power steering pump and alternator, busted alternator bracket, (I thought the belt looked a little wild!) what next? I'll post again when I get a few more miles on.

If you are considering a rebuilder, please contact Rod Besser (R & B Repair) at (612) 888-9857. He is located in Bloomington, MN, which is a Minneapolis suburb.

The price he quoted me before looking at it was the price he charged me when it was done even though he did more work than expected (replaced 1st and 4th gears (used) and entire clutch housing (used) as a bad starter bushing ruined the housing. He said he could have turned it around in a week but where I don't drive my van in the Maine salt I told him not to rush. He also was kind enough to deliver my tranny to the airport for the return trip to Maine. Went out of his way for me.

Many thanks to everyone but especially Ron Salmon, Gerry De Baun, Kyle Wade, Budd Premack, and Carl Hansen

Andrew Martin '87 Vanagon GL Syncro 167K Stratton, Maine deandrew@tdstelme.com


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