Gear Diagrams, different?

[Brandon]

I recently bought a AS 74 (not super) bug, its gearshifter layout is:

R___ ___2
      |
    _N___
P-| L     1

But I noticed a member here is selling an ashtray with a shifter sticker still on it, and its layout is:

R       1
  \___|_N
  /     |
L       2

How many different layouts were there, or is mine or his some weird oddity?

[Bookwus]

Hiya Brandon,

No oddity.

In 1973 VW added a designated "Park" position to the AS transmission.  That's your situation.  Before that, the shift pattern had only a nuetral range between the drive selections.  So, there are actually two different types of AS transmissions wandering around out there.

And welcome to the forum!

[Brandon]

Ah okay, thank you for the info and the welcome
One other quick question, me nor anyone I know had ever seen a AS Bug before, when you shift gears, it is supposed to spring the gearshifter back to the 'middle' right?

[Bookwus]

Hiya Brandon,

Spring back to the middle?

There is a spring attached to the shift rod which returns the gear shift lever to the right hand side of the tunnel when the shift lever is in nuetral.  Might that be what you are referring to?

[Brandon]

Hmm, ill explain it more clearly:
If you are in Neutral, and you go into 1st, you push the shifter to 1st and then let it go, the shifter springs back to the Neutral position, but is in 1st gear. The only times it does not do this are when you shift to Reverse or Park.

[Bookwus]

Hiya Brandon,

Most definitely NOT the case in a pre-73 AS tranny set-up.

I cannot speak for what may be correct with the post-72 trannys.

[68autobug]

Hi
What he means Mike is that when the points are closed as he changes gear
when he releases the gear lever knob it goes back [and the points open up again]

I know what you are saying and Yes is the answer,
when I hold My gearshifter in Low gear with the engine revving
when i release the gearknob the lever goes back to the normal position

I've only did that a few times on grass to see how my wheels spin...  lol...

If I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have known it does happen...

cheers

LEE

PS: You will have to try that Mike...  lol..

[volkenstein]

Guys,
       Had a little trouble with the description myself .

Brandon,
           If you mean the upper half of the gearstick, yes it does tend to spring back to "upright".

If you mean the entire stick returns to neutral, that isn't normal. This isn't a sequential shift box and the entire gear stick/rod/coupler/hockey stick acts as "one unit" so to speak on whatever gear selector rod is being operated at the time. The hockey stick is more or less captive in the shift rods.

Maybe your coupler and bush are very worn so that the little spring on the coupler bolt is pulling on the affair after you shift giving the appearance of being in neutral? A possibility?


Just a thought
Volkenstein