Of the automatic transmissions I have repaired I only had a valve body problem once. Getting a rebuilt assembly from German Transaxle took care of that one.

Dennis
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of C. Abney
Sent: Friday, September 2, 2016 3:45 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Transmission fluid change - 1991 4 spd

From looking in mine, it's just the parts in the rebuild kit and the pistons that need repairs, and the thrust bearings, and even these are only if water gets in the AT.  The case looks new as well.  My chassis is at about 135k.

Looking on theSamba, it's evident that the valve body sealing plate suffers from the impact of the ball bearing seals slamming into the holes in it.  A ridge forms that prevents the smooth entry of the ball into the hole and it fails to properly seal its gallery.

This part is NLA, so simple replacement is impossible when it becomes worn.  Once in a blue moon someone talks about CNC milling a replacement, but I don't think it has ever gone beyond talk.

If you don't ever want to mess with that plate, if you want a half a million miles or more from your AT, maybe consider reducing the load at the shift points?

On 8/30/16, Jeff Palmer <jpalmer@mymts.net> wrote:
> Just out of curiosity I understood that automatics had a longer 
> lifespan, right? I'm at 300k kilometres and functioning normally. 
> Fluid gets changes regularly thanks to the ongoing drip that no gasket 
> ever seems to fix :)
>
> Thanks
> Jeff

-Chuck
--
It seems my TO-DO list is a FITO (faster-in-than-out)