It appears that many who have swapped to higher powered motors, bigger
wheels, and or overloaded their vans with accessories have had to
rebuild their transmissions frequently.  That is becoming more clear
as time goes on.

Be modest about what you do change, and don't change your driving
habits from what you'd normally do given that you are driving a
vanagon. That's the take-home lesson I got based on my readings.

On 12/30/16, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com> wrote:
> In addition to the .73 fifth gear what final drive (ring/pinion) ratio are
> you running and what size ties? All of this factors in.
> While it appears that reducing engine rpm is an ultimate goal there are
> disadvantages. It takes continuous horsepower to overcome wind resistance.
> Horsepower is a function of torque and RPM. Reduce the RPM and torque has to
> increase proportionally. Increased torque then becomes increased stress on
> everything. So you save some fuel but decreased transmission and engine life
> become victims. Keep in mind that the base of these transmissions were
> developed for engines less than 60 HP and vans somewhat lighter and with
> less frontal area than ours. These transmissions do not like torque over
> time. Also, keeping the engines running under load, pushing with more boost
> to get the job dome makes for an NOx emissions issue.
>
> Dennis
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Darrell Boehler
> Sent: Friday, December 30, 2016 9:16 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: 094 5 Speed kit
>
> Hi Jason,
>            I use a 0.73 ratio 5th gear from Weddle on my 86 vanagon 094
> transaxle and it works fine. I have a tdi ahu converted to a tdi afn. I have
> 20k miles on it and am happy. If you are staying with the same size tires
> you might want to go to the 0.70 ratio.  I rarely need to down shift on the
> highway.
> Midwesty
>

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