1) about 3rd gear 2) about the AC lever 3) about ballast resistor

["GREAVES, AMNA" <AGREAVES@eng.pria.com>]

Ok, since I do the digest, here's my three cents on the following topics:

1) about 3rd gear....
Someone said to check the linkages - yes, that's the best place to start. 
 the linkages are snapped together, one could have gotten jammed - so check 
that first.  Next, they lead (best I can remember) to a set of levers (more 
like three, or four little hooks) sticking out of the tranny.  My memory is 
a little shaky, but I think that one hook is for first and second, the next 
for second and third and fourth and seperate ones for either fifth or 
reverse.  The shift linkage moves these to switch your gears, there is a 
remote possibility that more than one of them is pulled (just enough to 
screw you up).  You can move them by hand, and make sure that they're all 
pushed in when you are in neutral. The other possibility, and I hate to 
mention it, is that you might have blown a synchronizer ring.  These guys 
match the next gear up to the tranny's rpms so that you can shift when you 
are moving.  They have little teeth (I used to war one as a bracelet, but 
the teeth kept jabbing me) and they can break off and you can get jammed 
(possibly).

In the old days (sorry Beetle owners) the beetle transmission could, very 
rarely, get third and reverse pulled up at the same time - which would hose 
the transmission (or strip the old reverse gear).

Speaking of reverse gears, the reason you have to come to a stop before you 
shift into reverse is because it has no synchros - you can shift into first 
safely when going in reverse - it does have synchros (but it's hell on the 
clutch).  And we -ALL- have had the old pop-out-of-reverese thing happen to 
us once in a while (easy to fix though).

2) The same thing happened to my AC lever - and I fixed it (by the way, 
either Josh or Jay should have that assembly, I gave it to them) was I took 
a piece of plastic that looked like a button with a post sticking out of it 
(you could make something similar with a piece of hard plastic tubing and a 
washer), carved it down to fit snugly in the hole in the center of the 
levers and jammed/glued it in there.  It held the levers in (made them a 
little stiff), but made them usable.  You might want to do something similar

3) Yes, it sounds like the ballast resistor is exactly your problem, you can 
check this by running a wire from the fusebox direct to the coil and see if 
that works.  Ballast resistors are a bitch to find.  Just try that and see 
if it helps.....

Later all....

ps. I'm going to have to start keeping my copy of Poor Richards Rabbit Book 
(or VW repair or the complete idiot) by Muir in my office just to keep up. 
 Any one who DOES NOT have a copy of this book should run right out this 
second and buy it - next to Bently it's the best damn VW book (not to 
mention the fantastic illustrations and text) ever !!!!
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