I'd like to thank you guys for making it that much more difficult to locate
a donor
van with a auto tranny by exposing this wonderful enlightenment!     ;)

So, those of you who did it yourselves, how long and how tough is it to do?

Thanks,

Steven
91 Westy (and tired of a manual in heavy traffic!)

On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 6:14 AM, Tom Rowsell <86westy@geoexploits.org>wrote:

> This is mostly for general interest, but I recently got my '86 Westy back
> from my mechanic. It's a long story; he was supposed to undercoat it, but
> he
> got carried away, stole my 4 speed transmission and replaced it with a 3
> speed auto :) The swap was kind of free-to-me, but I did spring for a few
> additional goodies. My point? After driving the standard and fearing those
> groggy automatics for the last 9 years of Westy ownership, I'm so so so so
> pleased. Perhaps I'm getting old, but for city driving, it's so smooth and
> sublime :) Reading about the potential problems with the stock tranny
> cooler, we opted for one of those
> Go-Westy<
> http://gowesty.com/ec_view_details.php?id=4481&category_id=&category_parent_id=
> >aftermarket
> coolers. He also rebuilt the axles and installed a gas tank
> sealing kit/hoses etc. New front shocks, and a new Rad from BusDepot
> rounded
> out the job...Just in time for spring...
>
> Tom
> http://www.tomrowsell.com/2011/03/switching-to-glide.html
>