Date:         Fri, 29 Jun 2012 14:43:25 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Short shift for 5 speed
Comments: To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@turbovans.com>
In-Reply-To:  <4FEE0186.9030601@turbovans.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 12:27 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <
scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:

>
> 'One of these days' - if I ever get to it. I have plan for a 4 speed
> Porsche 'Sportmatic' trans .
> it's a 4 speed manual trans, no clutch pedal ....instead a micro switch (
> VW Squareback has this too, but only in a 3 speed version ) on the shifter
> disengages a conventional clutch using vacuum ( I have the control valve
> and VW Bug vacuum large canister already  ) ..
> plus there is a small torque converter too ..
>   Works quite well, is still a manual trans, and no clutch pedal.  And VW
> and Porsche did that decades before the electronically controlled
> semi-automatic trans, or automated manual of today's crazy modern cars.
>
> Scott
> turbovans
>  O
>

The 5sp in my van, the first to second shift IS, for all purposes, in the
same plane.  If you shift by just pushing the lever forward, without any
grasp or guiding the lever over to the next "gate"....it slips effortlessly
into second without a noticeable 'jog' of the shifter.   When I first began
drivng this I would consciously try to 'follow the pattern' when shifting,
but I discovered soon enough that the tranny preferred not being 'guided'
through the gears...at least on the upshifts.  I would have trouble going
from first to second until I learned to just push the lever ahead and let
the springs guide it into the next gear.

   You do have to ' reach ' for the gears1st/reverse, those both require
(or prefer)  a slight depressing of the gear lever to get 'over' to those
two gears.   Shifting between 1st and reverse....no depressing the lever
needed.....I think this is so that 'rocking the van' to escape being stuck
is possible.

   Way back in the day I had a couple of really old Chrysler company cars
that had 'semi-automatic stick shifts'   You could stop at a light without
using the clutch and it would go throght the gears unaided after the
stop.   Or you could use the clutch or just the lever..."Fluid Drive" I
think they called that....I think it was some kind of centrifical clutch
arrangement like the overdrive transmissions in the 50s had.