This could be done, if enough people committed to the project.  The best,
and least expensive, would be to have it done in Eastern Europe.  Some of
the vendors I deal with commonly have special items produced in Poland,
etc., for fairly reasonable prices.  A recent example would be a special set
of gears for an Audi V6 Tiptronic transmission.  The new gears make the
tranny spin the wheels in the other direction so it can be used in a Vanagon
(with a V6 TDI).  Cool stuff.

Cheers,

Jeff
www.vanagonparts.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
Of BenT Syncro
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2005 12:01 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: TDIs and Automatic -- Custom Gears?

On 10/13/05, Jeffrey Schwaia <jeff@vanagonparts.com> wrote:
>
> That was me who looked into getting a custom ring & pinion made for the
> Vanagon automatic. Due to the complexities of the automatic ring & pinion
> the production costs are quite high. After showing the R&P to a few
> machinists, I was told we were looking at $2,500+ to produce a new R&P.
> Obviously, I would have had more than one built, but the costs would not
> have come down appreciably unless the number of units exceded 50.

 Coincidentally I spent a long time talking to Daryl Christensen at AA
Transaxle about this very subject yesterday.
 It would have to come down well below half that cost to make it attractive
for someone like me. There must a growing demand for this combo though...
Maybe in Europe too?
 70mph on US freeways is just too slow.

--
> BenT