Todd

Listen mate be careful.  Do not let anyone call you an expert !

The defination of an xspert is

An  "x"  is a has been  and a  "spert"  is a drip under pressure.

Ray Hunnam

Todd Hill wrote:

>   vanagon@VOLKSWAGEN.ORG writes:
>
> << Experts like Todd are on the list have rebuilt more than
> enough transmission and could shed some light on the subject.>>
>
> Damn!  Next thing you know I'll put out my own CD!  Call it
> 'Todd Hill's Pontifications' or something like that!  Now if I could
> just get my head through the door.........
>
> << It is amazing that Audi and VW parts are so alike.>>
>
> So alike, yet so different.  Automotive cousins you might say.
>
>   << I have come to the realization that VW isn't going to support
>  the Vanagon forever. >>
>
> For some strange unknown Teutonic reasoning VW has treated
> the United States market like an unwanted step-child for many,
> many years.  Heck, even the Canadians got the Syncro Passat!
> I'm sure you've seen the A3 Jetta TDI station wagon Syncro
> thats available in Europe (or so the brochure tells me) and those
> South African Vanagons with their engine/transaxle choices!
> *IF* VW had stuffed in the inline 4 cylinder and a true 5-speed
> into the Vanagon they'd still be selling them today down at
> the local autohaus.  No!  Make that a VR6 5-speed Syncro!
> With the Westy package you wouldn't be able to keep them
> on the lot.  They would just roll the transport truck onto a side
> street by the dealer and sell them that way.   Pssst.... Hey
> buddy!  Wanna buy a Syncro??
>
> I will continue to support the Vanagon, at least the transaxles
> for now, as best I can for the foreseeable future.  I know of a
> son of a VW swap meet friend (sounds like a movie plot) that
> is running a combo of Audi gears in a Vanagon transaxle
> case (with lots of machine work and welding) right side up
> in a mid-ship mounted sandrail.  As we've been posting back
> and forth lately about how the 091 style gearbox cannot
> be run right side up in a mid-mount application because there
> is not enough room inside to flip the differential (breathe) I
> am wondering why you cannot use the same technology to
> make a rear mount 091 5 speed with Audi internals?   I'll be
> checking into this but do not expect to have any answers
> until after Thanksgiving.
>
> I don't have a Vanagon myself (for now anyway) but am very
> interested in Michael Sullivan's TDI conversion into his Syncro
> Westy.  I will do his gearbox for him later next year with a
> custom 3rd and 4th ratio.  So all I need now is a donor Syncro
> Westfalia with a blown motor and transaxle!   Or how about a
> 2WD Westy so I can install an Audi/091 combo 5-speed
> transaxle into with a tall 5th.  Anyone got one that they need
> towed out of their yard??
>
> -Todd Hill
>  VolksWerks Transaxles
>  Olympia, WA