Thanks for the reply, QUICKSILVER462, you nailed it.
Over the winter I shy away from doing unnecessary work on vehicles, so the car didn't get much attention. The problem fixed itself for a while and then shat the bed again. Leave it in 3 and it was acceptable.
I intercepted the signal from the vss at the pcm yesterday with a voltmeter and observed a voltage fluctuation proportional to the fluctuation in the speedometer output, so that sort of led me away from the pcm.
This morning I got adventurous and lifted the front end, took off the passenger side tire and removed the vss. I stuck my finger in there and at first the tone ring seemed solid, but with a little effort I got it to slide around.
I bent a flat blade screwdriver at about 90* using a torch, and slowly worked the ring inboard back into position while rotating the hub in neutral. Reinstalled everything and took it for a flawless test drive.
This "fix" may or may not last. From what I see it looks like I can take a piece off the end of the transaxle to get at the ring. I'll have to remove the CV axle, and will have to replace an oil seal and a gasket. A bit of locktite bearing retainer on the ring and it should be permanent. Easy easy.
It'll probably leak out a bunch of tranny fluid when I do this so I'll grab a filter and a shift kit and do that at the same time. Sounds like a fun afternoon.
The last little thing that she does wrong is start hard when warm. It seems like vapour lock or low fuel pressure. If I hold the throttle down it starts faster, but will stall if I let off too soon.
For the moment that's small potatoes, and I'll start tracking that down after the litany of other mechanical adventures I have waiting for me this year.
Cheers.
