Several days ago this thread caught my eye in going through ten days back
log of List postings.
For the last two months (Sep and Oct) of driving last year, and for the last
three weeks through yesterday, my '87 Westy's AT did the same thing. After
the initial start up of the day, the AT presented no problem at all. We just
returned from an 1800 mile trip to EB and the OBX and the AT functioned
perfectly after the initial daily pause.

Yesterday I switched out the valve body with that of my '90 "parts" Carat. I
cleaned the filter, pan and the surfaces of the valve body; there were no
filings or significant crud. The fluid was fresh from my recent biennial AT
spring fluid change so I reused it. Today we took the Westy out for a 20
mile test  drive and it did not exhibit any of the pause symptoms.  YMMV.

This List IS GREAT!
Stephen Steele
Chillicothe OH

'87 Westy  "Franz"
'90 Carat  "Parts"
'91 Caravelle  "Hans"...awaiting new engine
'74 MGB  My first car...yep, I've kept it since '74
'93 Chevy S-10
'91 Jetta Diesel   My daily driver
'02 Jetta Wagon VR6  Wife's car
Ex Vans/VWs:
'81 Vanagon  from 1985-1990
'84 Westfalia  "Fritz" 2000-2004 now with Son #1
'88 Jetta GL  1990-1992
'92 Jetta GL  1992-1998
'90 Jetta     1999-2003
'81 Rabbit diesel   1999-2003
'82 Caddy VW Diesel P.U.  1999-2004

on 4/19/05 11:35, David McCallum at dmcc@DIMENSIONAL.COM wrote:

> I have an interesting intermittent situation for
> the consideration of the list...'89 Westy, engine
> rebuild ~4k miles ago (according to the PO). I've
> been doing the spit 'n' polish to get things just
> exactly perfect, and it's running well. But...
>
> Sometimes, on cold start, when I put it into drive,
> nothing happens. At first I revved to get a response,
> but soon realized that did no good. If I let it idle
> in gear, after maybe 10 secs I'll start to move
> forward. This happens maybe 1 in 10 mornings. I'm
> driving in city traffic 2-3 times a week.
>
> Fluid level is good, maybe a bit high, fluid color
> looks decent but not new. I have the A/T tuneup kit
> of screen, gasket, etc. and plan to tackle that this
> weekend, but thought I'd ask for any thoughts about
> my A/T's intermittent sluggishness in case I need to
> address something while I have the cover off.