Hi Loren,

I dunno about "we," but my gripe with the stock shift points is that I
find them to be too low for my taste. First, I have a fused ankle so I
can't mash the pedal down easily to use the kick-down. Second, when the
stock transmission shifted at 2600 rpm from 1st to 2nd, and 2nd to 3rd,
it's boggy, esp. when pulling away from a stop sign or into traffic. In
such cases I got into the habit of shifting by hand, but now it upshifts
at about 3200 rpm which is close to what I do by hand anyway. And third,
when I slide my butt forward in the seat to access kickdown when getting
up to freeway speed, the stock governor would not let the engine go
above about 3800 - 4000 rpm before upshifting, and redline for the
engine is closer to 5200 rpm; after the mod it gets up to around 4600 -
4800 rpm. Again, this is what I'd do by hand.

The new governor does not always shift much higher than the stock one:
with light pedal pressure, it upshifts around 2800 rpm anyway.

None of this answers your question, whether I am causing damage or not.
But heck, I typically upshifted my old 71 1600dp VW bay window at 3500
to 3800 rpm when I was wanting to get up to speed. So I don't think I'm
doing this somewhat more robust engine any harm. As for wear and tear on
the transaxle? I'm going over to GTA right now and I'll ask Ken.

-- RJS

On Mon, 2011-05-23 at 11:21 -0700, Loren Busch wrote:

>  RE: Modified Governor In AT w/Stock VW Engines
> So let me ask a very basic question.  What makes us think that the
> engineers at VW  didn't know what they were doing?  What makes us
> think that the stock match between RPM and tranny gearing is wrong?
> And in addition what makes us think the new shift points are better
> than what the original designers came up with?
> BTW, I understand the need to change the shift point in the auto
> tranny if going to a Zetec or Subie engine, whole different power
> curves.  I also know that the auto tranny in the Vanagons has a
> stellar reputation for reliability and endurance when paired with the
> stock engines.  So why are we trying to re-engineer what has proven to
> be a good setup?