Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2005 16:53:56 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Magee <markbmagee@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Mark Magee <markbmagee@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject: Re: TDIs and Automatic -- Custom Gears?
In-Reply-To: <AIEFIGCNNANNIHLNFBPEGEBPBCAB.mailinglist@fastforward.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Try contacting Martin Gear and Sprocket at:
http://www.martinsprocket.com/home.htm
Their plant is in Arkansas and they can make -any- gear, in any quantity,
very fast. Their plant is the state of the art. They won't be cheap, but
they can normally beat a local machine shop due to their extreme automation.
Mark Magee
90 Carat 94K mi
Kemah TX USA
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
David Marshall
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2005 1:45 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: TDIs and Automatic -- Custom Gears?
The internals of the automatic Vanagon Transmission are the same as the
internals of the A2 Golf/Jetta (1985-1992) transmission with all parts
numbers of "010 323 xxx". Obvious difference being the differential housing.
Vanagon
R+P 4.09
1st 2.71
2nd 1.50
3rd 1.00
The bad news is that the Golf transmission has the same 1 thru 3 gears. The
differential on the Golf is completly different. The Vanagon uses 090 part
numbers and the Golf continues to be 010 part nubmers - two totally
different beasts. Even the T2 has the 4.09:1 final drive.
With stock 185R14 (25.6") tires gives us 3300 RPM at 100km/h (62MPH)
With 215/75R15 (27.6") ties 100km/h falls to 3100 RPM
We have done a Turbo Diesel installation for a customer with an automatic
and they were running 215/75R15 tires. It was acceptable. TDI engines
really don't want to be above a constant 3500 RPM which limits your "all day
long" speed to about 115km/h or 70MPH. TDIs can run faster than this, but
this is not something that I would want to do. For the record, my friend in
Germany with a Syncro 16 with 6.17:1 final drive runs his TDI at 3800 RPM
for hours at a time with no grief - for the record that is 100km/h!
I do laugh when I hear of people wanting to run their Vanagons at 80 to 90
MPH all day. These are vans designed in the 1970s for 1970s speed limits of
90km/h or 55MPH - they do perfectly fine at this speeds and with the TDI in
there running at this speed, you would be again perfectly fine.
The key would be to find a place that can make a custom ring and pinion for
the automatic. Seeing how Syncro R+Ps are a little over $1000 custom T3
Automatic R+Ps have to be more unless you are making 50+
So, yes, a TDI can go into an automatic T3, just that you are stuck at doing
the speed limit found in most places in Canada which is 100km/h or 110km/h
in some places. Don't feel bad, people won't be POed at you - after all we
are driving a Volkswagen van and Joe Public feels that they are slow anyhow
so not a problem! ;-)
Looking at my European ETKA, there IS hope! The NJ Automatic transmisison
has a 41/11 R+P which 3.73 final drive. That R+P with stock tires gets you
to 3000 RPM at 100km/h with a 3500 RPM speed of 115km/h Uping the tires to
a 215/75R15 makes a 100km/h speed of 2900 and a 3500 RPM speed of 120km/h -
seems plenty good to me!
David Marshall
Fast Forward Automotive Inc.
4356 Quesnel-Hixon Road
Quesnel BC Canada V2J 6Z3
http://www.fastforward.ca mailto:sales@fastforward.ca
Phone: (250) 992 7775 FAX: (250) 992 1160
- Vanagon Accessories and Engine Conversions
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Due to the large volume of email we receive, PLEASE include previous
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-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of Michael Diehr
Sent: October 13, 2005 8:31 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: TDIs and Automatic -- Custom Gears?
Given the increasing interest in TDI conversions for Vanagons, and
the demonstrated superiority of the automatic transmission :-) and
the apparent mismatch of final drive ratio with the TDI engine:
I'm wondering if there is some critical mass at which it would be
feasible to get a bunch of custom gears built? Someone on the
vanagon list recently (forgot who) said they looked into getting
custom gears machined and it was "expensive." How expensive? Was
this the price for 1 set? Would ordering 10 drop the price?
Personally, if I'm spending $5k-$7k for a TDI conversion for an
automatic, I might be willing to drop $500 or more on some overpriced
custom hardware to change the final drive ratio. If a group of us
could get together, I wonder if we could solve this problem at a
reasonable price?
