The later trannys are definately superionr in  strength and longevity. (Even
with their 3/4 hub issues.)
The early trannys are esentially the same as the 76 vintage busses and made
to handle 70HP or some such lowe number.
When you add the increased weight and power and torque of a later Van, you
get noticebly less life span with an air cooled trans.
VW did not do their engineering homework early on and figured the same old
part design of early tranny's would work in the WBX's..Wrong.
They did however beef up almost everything else inside there and did a
reasonably good job of that...
Well..Unless you count the late R&P that wears out way faster than the 84-85
version.
Daryl of AA Transaxle
(425) 788-4070
aatransaxle.com
86 Syncro Westy..Happy the Camper
Zetec in the trunk
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gerry Lepage" <vanagonstretch@AOL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2008 4:30 AM
Subject: Aircooled transmissions better?

>I read in several engine conversion pages that the manual transmission out
>of air cooled Vanagons are better. Can anyone tell me the reason for this.
>What is the difference between my 2.1 and the aircooled transmission. I may
>have a chance to pick one up for future use and just wondering if it would
>be worth it.
>
> Cheers, Gerry
> www.vanalong.com
>
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
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