>I have to side with Bill as well.  My 84 Westy is an auto and functions
>very well.  With the van upgraded to a 2.1 last year, I put about 22k miles
>on it without a problem at all, trans-wise.  Shifts well and positive in
>just about the right spots and downshifting on decent grades has not been

I'm siding on the righteous side of auto trannies as well, buying the '90
down in TX with such a thing installed really scared me at first, but once I
hit some mountains in KY I was amazed, I think the auto box is a BETTER
match for a van with its 4.09:1 final and 1:1 in 3rd as compared to the
4:83:1 and .85:1 though the difference seems to be purely imaginary.  But in
general it seems to me the auto acts just a tad lower, higher revs at 70
(the slip I guess), but holds a hill slightly longer than I can in 4th.
Numbers say it should be damn even, so I don't know, maybe the slip keeps
you slightly higher in the power band longer who knows, but I like it.  The
'87 seems just as nice.  But I'll note regarding reliability, of course, I'm
not impressed the '90 croaked at 90k, I had changed the ATF, filter, etc at
purchase (75k) it appeared to have been done before the ATF was nice and
clean, but there were larger bits of friction lining.  The '87 has a junk
yard tranny in it at 90k as well, so obviously had died sometime before,
both have tranny coolers, both were probably fairly well maintained vans.
So as far as reliability my experience is not positive, but after all that
Jetta box fits and was cheap.

John
vwbus@mindspring.com