went for a trip over the weekend with the family in the Kombi and am losing reverse! The clutch cable I believe is adjusted fine but the stick dont seem to drop down? Could this be something to do with the Selector plate or spring (if there is one) Will remove gearshifter next weekend but any advice welcome. At one stage I was doing a 3 point turn to get out of a parking spot and was just unable to get reverse for a good 3 minutes ! Lady in car in front was wondering why I kept inching forward towards her car lol. Fortunately it did go in and I was able to get out of my pickle.

BUMP

Have a look at the front gearshift rod bush just near the torsion bars,this collapses fairly regularly and causes all sorts of funny little problems and they are not hard to replace.

^ That will surely help but you should still be able to get reverse.
It's most likely to do with the position of the shifter plate or the adjustment of the clutch or a bit of both.
1.5" freeplay on the clutch pedal is pretty close. Was it grinding when you were trying for reverse?
How are the other gears to find? how is 3rd to 2nd?
Grab a 13mm spanner and see if moving the plate at the bottom of the shifter around helps ya.
Best of luck mate, Toby

Just re-read...if you do take it out just take note of the orientation of the selector plate. Shifter can only go back one way.
Degrease and clean it all then load it up with fresh grease.
10 minute job

Thanks everyone. Re gearbox crunching. No this is not happening. Going up or down from any gear is smooth. Its just hard to locate reverse. There is just no downward pressure anymore and it feels exactly the same as 2nd (and 9 times out of 10 it is 2nd lol). I feel a bit more confident to remove the knob now after your words of wisdom. And I will check the gearshift rod bush also while I am at it. Just hope weathers good this weekend