Shift issues

[Sagle23]

I brought my vanagon 86 transporter to the same mech for an oil change. They let another mech pull it in to the garage, who I don’t think can drive stick. The shifter now when wanting to go into first goes was to far to the left and almost into reverse. Any idea what to do moving forward?

[Multiman mv]

Most likely that whomever was driving it, pushed the stick shift down and got it stuck in an undesirable location. Maybe the stick assembly rotated out of its normal position. Check that everything is tight. Make sure that the shift gate on the left and the rail on the right side are still properly attached. Maybe something happened to the guide rail on the right side of the shift box. It is welded in place but make sure it’s still attached properly. They can rust and fail in an extreme case. I recently had the shift gate for 3 and 4 gear lose a bolt and pivot out of position. It’s possible that something happened to one of the plastic tabs on the right side of the bottom of your stick shift. They can wear down or even break off. That’s an easy fix but of course you’d need the parts. Check that the linkage under neath the van didn’t slip. Look at the joint where the two halves mate together and look for any evidence that it has twisted or pulled apart. Maybe when they put it up on the lift it could have tweaked things. Good luck. I hope you get it figured out. Just trying to give you a list of things to check. It’s most likely something that’s easy to fix.

[Ahwahnee]

The good news it that it is likely something external to the trans.

Examine the linkage front and back to assure everything is there, not badly worn, broken missing.

The last two show a failed shifting linkage at the trans.