The third gear in the VW automatic is actually 1 to 1. What goes in is what
comes out.  Basically what happens is that everything inside locks-up and
turns as a solid piece.  The only thing that can possibly be done is change
the final drive ratio, (Ring and Pinion).  I do not know of any alternate
gears that are available.  Vehicles with overdrive use another planetary
gear set to provide the overdrive ratio, (4th gear in a VW manual
transmission is an overdrive). Another feature used by modern cars is the
"Lock-up" Torque converter.  I wonder if we could somehow add this to a
Vanagon automatic.

Happy Thanksgiving
Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Cory Sytsma <sytsmac@BPICORP.COM>
To: vanagon@VANAGON.COM <vanagon@VANAGON.COM>
Date: Wednesday, November 25, 1998 1:52 PM
Subject: Change gearing on Automatic Transmission?

>With all this talk about 5 speeds and changing the gearing on a manual
>transmission, is it possible to change the gearing on the automatic
>transmission?   I wouldn't mind cruising at a lower RPM than I currently do
>in my automatic.  Is it possible, and how complicated is it, to change the
>third gear in an automatic transmission?  I have no experience with
>automatic transmissions, so have no idea of the feasibility of this.
>
>Cory
>'89 Westy
>Seattle, WA