Date: Sun, 8 Mar 1998 20:35:26 -0500
Reply-To: John Anderson <vwbus@MINDSPRING.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: John Anderson <vwbus@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject: OK Rabbit/Jetta Auto into Van, the Scoop
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
OK here go's, first many thanks to to Jim (old volks home) and Steve
(NotaJeep@aol.com) for getting me on what I knew all along was the right
track.
First, what will work. Steve implied he used a Rabbit box, I've looked at a
'79 and believe it would be OK, but I'd steer a little later for common
sense, the box I obtained was a free '89 Jetta box which had suffered a
failed R&P at 65k. Damage localized to the final, the auto is supposed to
be OK. Now unless you can get a yard to sell you just the tranny section,
chances are this isn't going to save you THAT much money, assuming you can
though (Parts Place will, and @$#$ all the whiners that have had trouble
with them, I've used them for 10 years with no more than annoyances, and no
more of them than I've had from anyone else including St. Salmon, Bus Boys,
AVP, Stephens, etc.) buy only the tranny section from a low miles car for
$150 or so, here's what you will need to do for your trouble.
MAIN POINT, the rabbit or jetta box will probably (definitely?) not have the
tranny cooler, ask yourself, did it help me anyway? Do I need it, will it
not just probably start leaking, who knows, you will have to either live
without or take some slightly more drastic measures. Inspecting the late
auto case on the Jetta box shows the bosses are there for the cooler, just
not drilled, so I made a radical decision, I decided to swap the internals,
case to case and retain the cooler. A note on all of this backing up, leave
the cooler on the coolant lines, disconnect the thing from the auto in the
car when you get it a few inches down, by removing the tranny bracket from
the tranny (15° swivel extension going to help here) and let the ATF drain
out. A couple of O-rings are cheap and need replaced anyway, and if you are
going to forget about the thing anyway, might as well just leave it up in
there connected to the cooling system and not bother bleeding everything.
Taking off the front bracket makes things much easier as far as sliding the
tranny off the engine. Pulling the tranny only in a wasserboxer was a quite
painless event generally, took about 45 minutes first time. Anyway,
unbolted from their finals and with both boxes on the bench in front of you,
you notice 3 things need changed (cooler aside). First, the studs, longer
on the Jetta box, second the reverse planetary ring gear/governor drive gear
(which it is on the Jetta and is not on the Vanagon as its governor is
driven by something deeper in the final), and finally the selector lever
assemblies. Basically the studs are self expanetory, the reverse planetary
ring gear slides off one and onto the other, or I in anality removed the
inner sections, and kept the ring gears with their respective boxes (1
circlip), finally remove the valve bodies and the selector levers are a
strightforward swap. Steve says BTW no inherent difference between using
either valve body, I used the Jetta body as I did not feel like delving into
the Vanagon one to clean it. Go slow, draw was/is diagrams, or ideally have
both manuals in front of you, and keep things clean. I went a bit further,
following the instructions in a Rabbit bentley (far superior, old style
manual) I dissasembled the two trannies and swapped the internals case for
case to retain my ATF cooler, I'm hoping whatever killed the van box is not
case related. Anyway, quite doable, if you are just swapping the trannies,
quite a bolt off/on repair, will take a good full day. I've not got
everything back together as I'm awaiting gaskets and seals the following of
which you will need.
2 paper final to tranny gaskets
1 final to tranny O-ring
1 torque converter seal
1 final to tranny seal (well I did not pull this one, no sign of it leaking
ATF into final so...)
I'll report a couple weeks from now after I get the seals how it all ended
up, I have no reason to feel it is not going to be 100%, the damage to the
van tranny resulted in some metal to metal contact, so I've also drained the
converter, and will change the filter again shortly.
John
vwbus@mindspring.com
'78 westy, '79 scirocco, '81 westy, '85 GL, '85 GTi, '87 GL hey where did my
yard go?
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