This is probably heresy in this forum. Last spring I drove from near
Toronto, Canada to Georgia to get the manual tranny in my 84 Westy swapped
for an automatic tranny. The main reason was that my wife (after 10 years of
trying) was not going to get the whole clutch business. And I wasn't averse
to the switch because I hate getting stuck in traffic with a manual
transmission.

I LOVE THE AUTO TRANNY TOO!!

There is a bunch of info on this list that indicates that the auto tranny's
are long-lasting and bullet proof.

I was worried about power loss -- but lacking dyno results before and after
-- found no difference. I have an I4 emgine in my 84 Westy.

The shift points are good -- and you can shift whenever you want to with the
auto -- taught my wife to do this when climbing serious mountains -- not a
problem.

Always been a thought of mine that the folks who advocate the 'better fuel
efficiency' of a standard trans are the ones who watch their tach's and wind
out the shifts to redline -- never seen anyone who understands what a tach
is for who is watching it for better gas mileage -- YMMV.

Cheers,
Doug

>>After 12 years I've driven all over the USA and I LUV my
>>automatic