Yes, these ideas occurred to me, but there are two problems: One is
that there is no front to rear locking mechanism in the front diff;
this front diff is meant to be used with rear trans that has such a
locking mechanism. There are no such rear tansmissions in North
American, and they were declared obsolete by VW in 1986 even in
Europe. Finding one...forget it.

Secondly, I like to have the VC for use in snowy climes. I really do
like that vc, troublesome though it may be if it is abused.

But there is a certain logic to what you say. Two of my other list
favorites, Dennis Haynes and Tim Smith have also expressed interest
in the manually locking setup so grat minds think alike.

At 11:36 AM 10/15/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Derek,
>
>Frankly why would you care to install the VC at this point.  In my
mind what
>you have is the ideal situation, similar to what my old Quantum and
what
>early Audi's had.  A lockable and UNLOCKABLE center diff.  That is
in my
>mind absolutely superb, you delete the somewhat wonderful but
equally
>wearable and hokey VC setup, you can run the van around town and
most all
>the time in regular fully differentiated 4wd the when you want to
go offroad
>you simply get the infinitely superior traction of a LOCKED 50/50
torque
>split, what every offroader in the world has.  The Quantum was
unstoppable
>with the center locked, when I locked the rear side to side to a
basically
>solid axle which you will do with your stock rear locker the thing
would
>plow through snow until it high centered itself.  I'd install the
diff,
>plumb whatever you need for a vacuum servo to operate it and kiss
the VC
>goodbye happily.  And that thing will likely last forever running
redline
>oil in it, nothing to break cept gears and whatever sort of synchro
hub
>system the lock uses but that stuff is usually pretty bulletproof.
I would
>not dissasemble the diff, I would not mess with it one iota.  Sure
you lose
>the glamour of the wonderful auto locker and its slight safety
advantage,
>but I'll note, you could probably run the thing locked year round
without
>damage if you liked, and certainly could run it in the winter when
needed
>locked full time, and I take it that this diff still provides as
the quantum
>did full time 4wd, simply that the center is not locked up and the
front can
>slip relative to the back if needed.  I think you have the desired
and
>ultimate off roading device for the van and won't see a practical
change in
>on road behavior.  Now if this thing unlocks the front totally so
you have
>only a 2wd van in unlocked position and locked a 50/50 split, then
you have
>some choices, but I'd still do it because fact is a 2wd van
handles
>beautifully most of the time.  Does it actually have just a
standard small
>differential in the case for front to rear and then the diff for
the front,
>if so then it is still full time 4wd.
>
>John
>

_____________________________________________________
Derek Drew                           New York, NY & Washington DC
ConsumerSearch
drew@interport.net
212-580-6486, 202-966-7907 (W)
212-580-4459; 202-966-0938 (H)