DUH!  I have an owners manual...  Page 47, 22 MPH in first, 47 MPH in
second, 69 MPH in D.  Although my mechanic said to take my time going
up a steep grade - keep it down to 30 max.  Thanks for getting me to
actually read something.

Dan
L.A., CA
'85 Westy Weekender

On Jun 6, 2011, at 4:02 PM, David Beierl wrote:

> At 04:37 PM 6/6/2011, Daniel Rotblatt wrote:
>> Thanks for the correlation between RPM and speed in 2nd.  50 MPH =
>> ~4200 RPM.  I could probably chart that and figure out what's going
>> on.  It does make me a little more comfortable with the hill thing.
>
> It varies considerably with the grade, of course.
>
> The published never-exceeds for the '89 are 33 mph in first and 54
> mph in second ( owner's manual page 30).  1.9l ought to be
> similar.  The engine redline is 5200 rpm and the limiter will kick in
> at that speed; however the owner's manual mentions that rpm only in
> connection with the manual transmission, and refers you back to page
> 30 for the auto-trans limits.
>
> What exactly that means depends how you parse it and how careful they
> were writing the book.  But I think they specifically disclaim the
> engine redline because they don't want you to think you can go
> zooming down the hill at 60 mph and 4000 rpm or whatever in second.
>
> Somebody here has an owner's manual for 1.9l.  After all, everyone
> who sinks $16k-plus into a vehicle (what my old '84 Westy cost the
> first owners, only option was $500 for stereo wiring) just naturally
> reads that book cover to cover and cherishes it. </sarcasm>
>
> Yours,
> David