Date: Sun, 1 Nov 1998 00:57:52 -0500
Reply-To: John Anderson <janderson@IOLINC.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: John Anderson <janderson@IOLINC.NET>
Subject: Re: Audi 5000 and Vanagon auto trans are the same???
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
< I was just reading a message in the Quattro mailing list about someone
> stating that the Audi 5000 automatic was the same transmission as the
> Vanagon automatic. How can the be? The Audi would have to spin backwards
> to be in a Vanagon... >>
I have no idea which way the 5 cylinder spins but the trans works one way
regardless. The final drive in the tranny is flipped, ring gear side to
side relative to a van. I'd guess physically you can do as such in your van
if you'd like 4 reverse and one low forward speed. Quite common for people
who installed Porsche 5 speeds into buses.
In point of fact the 5000 trans is compatible as is physically damn near any
VW auto tranny ever made, only the auto tranny section of course when
unbolted from the final. The van/Audi box is supposed to be heavier duty
than rabbit and early golf/jetta boxes but I've had a late A2 Jetta box
sitting dissasembled next to a '90 Vanagon box and they are part for part
identical except for the lack of the drillings for the tranny cooler on the
Jetta housing (which early vans lack as well) and the obvious parts one must
exchange (the outer most planetary ring gear, and the selector and throttle
levers and shafts.) The swap into my '90 is going fine now with about 15k
on the Jetta box, deleting the cooler. The box had somewhere between 50 and
75k (can't remember sat behind a friends garage for 2 years.) I think I
retained the Jetta valve body and it might shift slightly differently, but I
don't really recall, seemed a bit different immediately after the swap and
seems a bit peppier than the '87 van. In point of fact I never found a
thing wrong with the '90 tranny, I saw what had been contacting (the very
gear that was swapped into the Jetta box, made a whoop, whoop, whoop noise
in 1 and 2, perhaps a tad of wear on the very last thrust bearing) but never
figured a reason, hardly any wear at all in fact, my best guess was that the
shims set between the tranny and final on the driveshaft were a bit too thin
allowing a bit too much play, wobble, and contact(incorrectly set shims from
the factory on very later Vanagon automatics seem to be common on this list)
but I feared setting them correctly and reinstalling the damn thing only to
have that not be the problem (particularly as unless I missed something
quite obvious I though getting the SOBing final and tranny back together was
annoying as hell as you have to match 2 levels of fine splines meshing at
the exact same time in different locations without being able to turn either
to allow alignment, why one couldn't lead the other a bit is beyond me.) If
the Jetta box ever goes I'll try reinstalling the van box with correct
shims. I note I talked with quite a few people who had even installed older
rabbit trannies with no problems although they appear in the manuals to
indeed have fewer clutch discs and detail construction differences as VW
refined the design. My money is that a '89-'92 vintage golf/jetta box is
identical to an '81-'85? van box sans cooler and is probably a good swap if
you can obtain the tranny only section cheap.
I shot a bunch of pictures of the swap, been meaning to put them on a www
page, can scan and email to anyone needing them.
John
janderson@iolinc.net
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