At 00:57 11/1/98 -0500, John Anderson wrote:
>< I was just reading a message in the Quattro mailing list about someone
>> stating that the Audi 5000 automatic was the same transmission as the
>> Vanagon automatic.  How can the be?  The Audi would have to spin backwards
>> to be in a Vanagon... >>
>
>
>I have no idea which way the 5 cylinder spins but the trans works one way
>regardless.  The final drive in the tranny is flipped, ring gear side to
>side relative to a van.  I'd guess physically you can do as such in your van
>if you'd like 4 reverse and one low forward speed.  Quite common for people
>who installed Porsche 5 speeds into buses.

All VW / Audi / Porsche engines spin in the same direction.  Most
manufacturers engine spin the same way, the exception to this is Honda.

>In point of fact the 5000 trans is compatible as is physically damn near any
>VW auto tranny ever made, only the auto tranny section of course when
>unbolted from the final.  The van/Audi box is supposed to be heavier duty
>than rabbit and early golf/jetta boxes but I've had a late A2 Jetta box
>sitting dissasembled next to a '90 Vanagon box and they are part for part
>identical except for the lack of the drillings for the tranny cooler on the
>Jetta housing (which early vans lack as well) and the obvious parts one must
>exchange (the outer most planetary ring gear, and the selector and throttle
>levers and shafts.)  The swap into my '90 is going fine now with about 15k
>on the Jetta box, deleting the cooler.  The box had somewhere between 50 and
>75k (can't remember sat behind a friends garage for 2 years.)  I think I
>retained the Jetta valve body and it might shift slightly differently, but I
>don't really recall, seemed a bit different immediately after the swap and
>seems a bit peppier than the '87 van.  In point of fact I never found a
>thing wrong with the '90 tranny, I saw what had been contacting (the very
>gear that was swapped into the Jetta box, made a whoop, whoop, whoop noise
>in 1 and 2, perhaps a tad of wear on the very last thrust bearing) but never
>figured a reason, hardly any wear at all in fact, my best guess was that the
>shims set between the tranny and final on the driveshaft were a bit too thin
>allowing a bit too much play, wobble, and contact(incorrectly set shims from
>the factory on very later Vanagon automatics seem to be common on this list)
>but I feared setting them correctly and reinstalling the damn thing only to
>have that not be the problem (particularly as unless I missed something
>quite obvious I though getting the SOBing final and tranny back together was
>annoying as hell as you have to match 2 levels of fine splines meshing at
>the exact same time in different locations without being able to turn either
>to allow alignment, why one couldn't lead the other a bit is beyond me.)  If
>the Jetta box ever goes I'll try reinstalling the van box with correct
>shims.  I note I talked with quite a few people who had even installed older
>rabbit trannies with no problems although they appear in the manuals to
>indeed have fewer clutch discs and detail construction differences as VW
>refined the design.  My money is that a '89-'92 vintage golf/jetta box is
>identical to an '81-'85? van box sans cooler and is probably a good swap if
>you can obtain the tranny only section cheap.
>I shot a bunch of pictures of the swap, been meaning to put them on a www
 >page, can scan and email to anyone needing them.

I never knew the Golf series slush boxes were the same (less the planetary
gears)... too bad the manual boxes were the same or else I would have a
Quattro transmission in my Syncro and could finally delete the VC for
Quattros much better Torsen differential setup.

If you want to send me the photos and a write up about them I will gladly
post them on my Vanagon section of my site.

>John
>janderson@iolinc.net

-- David Marshall                                    --
-- 78 1.8L VW Rabbit, 80 2.0L VW Caddy, 87 Audi 5KSQ --
-- 85 VW Cabriolet, 88 2.0L VW Syncro 16" Double Cab --
-- Volkswagen Homepage   http://www.volkswagen.org   --
-- Volkswagen/Audi Parts http://parts.volkswagen.org --
-- mailto:david@volkswagen.org - Quesnel, BC, Canada --