I'm with you. I have seen far more auto tranny Vanagons listed for sale
needing tranny work or with recent tranny repairs mentioned than 4 speed
models. I know of numerous manual watercooled models that went to
150-200K and still going. I'm sure some will say that if only the owners
took better care of them, then the autos outlast the sticks. Maybe,
maybe not. You could just as easily blame the cracking 3/4 hubs on the
owners too, since some fail much sooner than others and some never do.
My opinion is that given the typical use and typical lack of maintenance
the sticks live as long or longer than the autos. Plenty of exceptions,
no doubt.

The design of the 3/4 hub was carried to the watercooled trannys from
earlier VW van models.They can suffer the same failures but with the
weaker stock earlier engines they don't seem to break trannys as much as
later models. In the last years of European Vanagon production the 3/4
hub was changed in a very minor way to help avoid the failure. Reputable
rebuilders generally put the new part in at rebuild time. Some places
weld the old type where it tends to crack over time.

Mark

TJ Hannink wrote:

>Maybe you need to quit powershifting :>)
>
>I'm still waiting for mine to fail after 245,000 miles.
>
>Tim
>
>JordanVw@AOL.COM wrote:
>In a message dated 9/27/05 10:27:13 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>onanov@GMAIL.COM writes:
>
>
>
>
>>That the Vanagon has a weak manual transmission is news to me
>>
>>
>
>well apparently your the only one its news to.. LOL :<) the 83-89 vanagon
>manual trannys are famous for failure. ive owned 4 vans that had the 3/4
>slider hub crack problem..
>
>
>