I can't begin to tell you how many people I have met over the years that
thought that you simply "had"  to run the speed up to the red dots in
each gear before you shifted up to the next higher gear. What a strain
on the engine and drive train! Had an uncle that drove his 60 something
beetle down from Alaska all the way across Canada and the States to
Alabama driving just like that. He was frustrated when he had to rebuild
the tranny and replace the engine very early in his ownership of the
car, even thoug he bought it new.

It was not necessary, nor is it so in out vanagons today. Listen to the
engine and let it tell you when to shift. Couse the tach helps, but if
you pay attention to the engine sounds you can tell pretty much when
it's time.

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver

Joe Fortino wrote:
>
> the older vw bugs never had a tac meter so you used the red notches
> to shift to the next gear. 1st got you to 5 or 10mph and so on.
>
> lucky for me I have a tac on my 1.9GL I hit the hills and if I'm tackin
> over 4 grand I get nothing except REDLINE, so my goal is to not go past
> 4 grand in any gear.. * plus the motor loves me *
>
> man in the BOX
>
> Stan Wilder <wilden1@juno.com> wrote:
> Thats your shift point for third to forth gear. In other words max RPM
> for 3rd gear.
>
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