Date:         Fri, 2 Mar 2001 09:58:15 -0800
Reply-To:     Bruce Grove <bruce.grove@ENG.SUN.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Bruce Grove <bruce.grove@ENG.SUN.COM>
Organization: Sun Microsystems
Subject:      91 vanagon 4 spd to 5 spd gearbox
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi all,

I've recently joined the list and have a question already :-)

I recently moved to California from the UK having previously owned an
old bay window followed by an 87 waterboxer vanagon.  My 87 UK vanagon
had a 5 speed gearbox which was great (and very common in Europe).

Having moved out to the US one of the first things I did was start
searching for a new bus.  I was amazed to find that none of the waterboxers
(except Syncro's?) had 5 speed gear boxes.  This is really noticable on
long journeys where I find that at 70mph I'm now doing nearly 1000 rpm
more than my old UK bus used to do, which isn't good.  My theory on this
is that in a country that used to have a blanket 55mph speed limit VW
probably didn't see the need for the cost of the 5 speed box compared to
Europe where 70-80mph is the norm.

I know I can't drop the syncro box in there without some major modification
but I don't see any reason why I can't drop a waterboxer 5 speed in there,
the final drive is the same and in fact there's very little difference in
the first 4 ratio's and it's the same bellhousing.  I might need to look
at the linkage.  The problem is sourcing one (I think it might class as
excess baggage if I try to bring it back from a UK trip).  Does anyone
have any thoughts or suggestions on this?

Much appreciated, Bruce

91 Westfalia (untold luxury following teo previous self conversions :-)