I talked to him yesterday morning about 10:00. Thanks to the help of our friend Joe that lives up that way, he had located a guy parting out a Vanagon. When Kyle talked to him, he found out that this guy has been to Bug-A-Paluza and had seen the Vanagonagon before!
At the time I talked to him, Kyle was driving to the guy's house to make the swap. The Vanagonagon was still moving under it's own power but it didn't have 4th gear and the tranny was making a lot of weird noises in 3rd. I didn't hear back from him, so I'm assuming he made it.
The plan was he was going to help the guy pull the engine and tranny from the parts Vanagon and then they were going to pull the tranny from the Vanagonagon. This was all going to be done outside. The high yesterday up there was supposed to hit 31 degrees. After they got them out, they were going to take them in a heated garage and swap all the stuff to make the new tranny work in his stretch. He has to change out the input shaft (requires removing a side cover and I think he said loosening the ring gear to get enough clearance), change out the bell housing, and then do some grinding on the case to make the diesel starter fit. Then, he has to go back out into the freezing cold and put it the tranny back in the stretch.
After all the times he's bailed me out of tough spots, I wish there was more I could do to help him :? . . . but I guess all I can do from here is say a prayer for him and wish him luck! [-o<
