Hi,

I've just bought a 73 bay window auto.  After speaking to a fair few parts shops, all who went "An automatic - you sure?" I thought I was on my own, or had bought a botched van.  Nice to know i'm not on my own.  Where can I fing info on VW Automatic buses?  I'm intrigued now!!!

Sculph

EBV,
      How many miles on the car?

The easy things to check are your shifter/stop plate position (well, relatively) as well as checking your shift coupler bushing under the plate under the back seat.
Next step is making sure your electrics (and contact point in the gearstick aren't bung) are all OK.

I asked about the miles because my next suggestion after all that would be to check clutch freeplay (it may or may not need doing) and adjust to specs if it's got say 75000 +miles on it.


Volkenstein

Everyone:

Thanks for your posts. I have fixed the problem but probably only for a little while. It functions perfectly. There were actually two problems, one of which you may not have considered before:

     - Tear in the diaphragm was overwhelmingly the biggest cause of this problem. I fixed this with contact cement. Volkenstein has a picture of it on his post. I hope it lasts for a while but I'm skeptical. I still need another one if any of you have one to sell...

     - Incorrect vacum hose type. When I received the car the vacum hoses were rotten. I replaced them with standard 1/4" heater hose. This also contributed to "slamming into gear". When vacum was applied the hose would flatten out (especially when hot) but not close. Once vacum was releived (hand off the shift knob) the hose would rapidly expand. This has the effect of instantly adding more volume to the total vacum space. Replacing the standard heater hose with the wire wound OEM vacum hose made a difference in shifting smoothness.

I have not seen this as a contributing cause to slamming into gear in other posts so I thought I'd pass along my experience.

Tom

While driving a 1969 autostick I find that the car sometimes will not go into low gear. The previous owner said that this sometimes happens, especially when it is cold out. "Cold" in Northern Calif., is I suppose below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
After revving the car and having no effect, putting it back in neutral and trying again in low and then a third time in low, it sprang into action and we were on our way.
This did not seem to happen in 1st, although I have barely driven the car so it might.
Any suggestions?

It seems feasible to me as well but I'm not that versed in the molding process.

I would think that the mold, if made from an old diaphragm, would only be as good dimensionally as the diaphragm you mold from.  As I understand it, that's been an issue with aftermarket rubber products in other areas of VWs.

If I knew more about blueprinting...I would think that would be the way to go.

Anyway there are almost surely RTV products out there now that could produce a suitable mend on a torn diagphragm.  McMaster's?

Oh and yeah Tom thanks for following up on your original post.  Good data to have.

Thanks Volkenstein. Just out of curiosity, do you know if anyone has considered making replacements for these seals using moulding latex? Someone possessing a good one would have to dismount it so that it could be moulded but it seems feasable to me. What to you think?

Tom

All,
    this is where (marked in RED) Tom has a tear in the small rubber diaphragm.



Nasty. Anyone have a bright idea to fix while he organises another CV unit?


Regards
Volkenstein

cisco3609,
               Two things I can think of.
1. Dubious quality of the actual rubber/moulding used in the replacement. Hakgun on this forum used a bicycle vulcaniser patch to fix his, try it as it would make that part stronger. Put it on the side facing the engine, not the vacuum spigot so the patch is "drawn in".

2. On re-assembly, make sure the rod/diaphragm assembly touches the back of the servo with the three rubber bungs, then tighten the clamp.

I guess a third tip may be to keep the gearstick "in motion" for as little time as possible and no resting your hand on it when driving (you probably don't but I'll say it anyway....)


HTH
Volkenstein

tmea,
       If it's the one I'm thinking of, your CV is now good for spares. Pick up another one from a junkyard or look in the classifieds on www.thesamba.com and search keyword is "auto" or "autostick". There's a couple on there.

Other than a sort of vulcanising fix.....it's a nasty one.

Whip a photo to me at ctefehinoz@hotmail.com just to make sure we are on the same page.

Ta
Volkenstein