I loves my German Transaxle rebuilt!

On Sat, Sep 11, 2010 at 3:34 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <
scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:

> re
>
> but the shift points seemed a little lower than before."
>
>
> there's one external adjustment that affects shift points ..
> the length of the rod from throttle lever on side of trans to throttle
> body.
>
> might ask if that was changed or adjusted.
> other than that, for shift points I think of governor.
>
> wouldn't hurt to suck a little ATF out of the filler tube.
> one auto trans shop I had work on a volvo auto trans of mine, had a nifty
> little home made glass bottle and tube arrangement ..
> they just taped into engine vaccuum to get the suction ..
> and you pull out say, a couple inches of ATF into the bottle.
>
> I doubt being overfull a tiny bit is causing your problems ...but overful
> can be a very bad thing and it's better to be sure .
>
> I have a hunch the shop might be wondering themselves what is going on.
> they are pertty fmaiiar with vanagon automatics ?
>
> I'm kinda shocked that 'modern' shops and technicians can be almost baffled
> by a simple old vw bus...
> the vanagon.
> One guy in colorado had his 2WD vanagon in for a smog test on rollers
> ...the
> smog tech thought it was front wheel drive ..
> that is being pretty clueless, or not looking in the lists I'm sure they
> must have that tell how to test each type of US model car or van.
>
> gets a bit scary. I would say it's worth it to send the trans to a
> transmission rebuilding shop that does a lot of them.  German Transaxle in
> Bend OR is sure one.
>
> to give you an idea of their level of expereince or expertise, I was
> working
> on a vanagon that just would not shift up into 3rd.
> The van's owner didn't want to put real money into fixing it, so went for
> cleaning, inspecting, looking at the valve body etc.  In that process,
> taking to German Transaxle ..
> found out that they sell rebuilt Valve Bodies....but here is the impressive
> part - they have a dyno to test them on.
> and when you read in Bentley how to set up little adjustable spring
> tensions in the valve body relative to hydrualic pressure ...you start
> seeing it gets pretty complicated.
>  like the valve body is a Anologue Computer really ...
> takes inputs, makes decesions, has outputs .....tricky darn part.
>
> my point is, without expereince and fancy equipment like that ..I suspect
> that some trans rebuilding shops figure to replace worn parts, and things
> should work as they did before ..
> which may not really be the case always.
>
> anyway, hope someone gets it figured out  !
> Personally, I'd check the differential oil level and CV joint screws ..
> Iv'e seen all kinds of things done wrong by shops ..it's almost normal.
>
> scott
> www.turbovans.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Edward Maglott" <emaglott3@GMAIL.COM>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2010 10:39 AM
> Subject: semi-urgent auto transmission question
>
>
>  Got my 86 van back a week or so ago after a transmission rebuild that
>> has been a saga.  I will cover that in more detail at some
>> point.  The short version is that the rebuilder had the van twice,
>> and for a long time both times.
>>
>> When I got it back a week ago the trans was working better than I've
>> ever experienced in a vanagon.  But then I've only had basically worn
>> out transmissions in mine.  So over the 100 miles or so I've driven
>> it since I got it back, it has developed a problem when cold.  Today
>> I start the van, let it idle about a minute and back up my driveway,
>> which is uphill.  Fine.  Put it in D and hear/feel nothing.  Step on
>> the gas and it revs freely up to about 2500 then the van takes off
>> with a thud.  For about the first block, it felt like it was maybe
>> slipping or was in 2nd gear instead of 1st.  After that it drove
>> normally, but the shift points seemed a little lower than before.
>>
>> I think this symptom has to do with the trans not properly developing
>> pressure when cold?  I've had the slipping in R when cold symptom
>> before this rebuild so I'm a little surprised it went up the driveway
>> so well in R and then didn't engage D.
>>
>> Checking the fluid level, it seems a tiny bit high.  Probably about
>> 1/8" above the top mark based on checking it hot, many times, and
>> parked on different "level looking" places to try to get a good
>> reading.  Could this be a factor?
>>
>> I was planning on taking  a trip for about a week in the next few
>> days.  Probably 1000 miles or less.  I can deal with the symptoms I
>> have now but don't know if it will get worse or damage something
>> inside worse.  Opinions?
>>
>> Edward
>>
>