I hate to think at how much the dealer charged for a new (rebuilt)
torque converter. Was it really new? Torque converters do go bad. There
is a stator and one way clutch that when it goes bad makes the converter
work more like a slip coupling than a device that can actually multiply
torque. This will cause lack of acceleration and hill climbing power.
The Bentley has a procedure to help diagnose it. There is no difference
for converters for camper vs. passenger vans but there are different
converters depending on year.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf
Of Gary McEachern
Sent: Monday, December 30, 2002 10:35 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Torque Converter Questin

Dale,

IMHO I'd tend to attribute this type of change in performance to a
timing/vacuum change rather than to the new torque converter. I believe
the torque converter is a rather simple device.

Gary

Dale Goodvin <dgoodvin@EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:

>After recently taking our westy (1990, automatic) to the vw dealer in
>Tacoma, Trish and i have both noticed a dramatic change in how it
drives.
>
>What we really really liked about it before was how easy it was to keep
>up with the rest of the traffic, regardless of the regular amount of
>hills we have in our area.  Also, when we shifted down to 2nd, 2nd
>seemed to have a really great range in both power and speed.
>
>Now, it feels like the vehicle is about 1000 pounds heavier and on many
>hills, we gradually lose speed almost like with Lily (our previous
>westy, a 1972, standard transmission.  Even shifting down to 2nd
doesn't
>help much (unlike before the recent work was done, when we breezed up
>the same hills).
>
>This is what VW Dealer did:
>
>"replaced all belts" (3 V-Belts)
>
>"replaced oil seal, gasket, bulb and TORQUE CONVERTER" (vehicle was
>leaking transmission oil)
>
>The only thing I think of that has caused this change is the new torque
>converter, but I know nothing about it's mechanical make-up, so I don't
>know whether it may be poorly adjusted, poorly installed, a defective
>product, or whether it will change with time or if the earlier
>transmission was not stock or if there should be a different converter
>for the Westy as compared to the plain vanagon and they put the wrong
>one in or ???????????????????????????????????????
>
>Any thoughts, advice would be most welcomed.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Dale
>(P.S., there is a warranty of 1yr/12,000 miles on the work)
>

--
Gary McEachern
Reading, Ma
'90 Westy Subavanagon
'86 Wolfy Subavanagon
'87 Syncro (Son's van)

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