Itinerant Air-Cooled

I'm going to rip into my auto tranny tomorrow. The tranny doesn't engage right away after starting. It takes about 30 seconds to "engage" fully. I found a nice 20 page section of a 1978 Mitchell Transmission Service & Repair manual that goes pretty in-depth with the tranny and the final drive. Wish me luck!

Cleanliness is critical! Good luck, you are a brave soul!

mycoleptodiscus wrote:I'm going to rip into my auto tranny tomorrow. The tranny doesn't engage right away after starting. It takes about 30 seconds to "engage" fully.

And the dipstick tube and dipstick were fully seated so you knew the ATF level was spot-on. . . .
Colin

I am sure I am about to open a can of worms here, but I have to ask.

How difficult is it to rebuild a manual transmission for a bus?

I know my shifter is pretty damn sloppy and I have been told that that is a sign of age and a need to rebuild (or replace) the tranny. Any truth to any of that?

thesykboy wrote:I am sure I am about to open a can of worms here, but I have to ask.

How difficult is it to rebuild a manual transmission for a bus?

I know my shifter is pretty damn sloppy and I have been told that that is a sign of age and a need to rebuild (or replace) the tranny. Any truth to any of that?

No can of worms. Sloppy shifter is usually in the linkage. You have a coupler, you have a plastic bushing at the front of the front gearshift rod, and you have a little pin in the shifter stick that prevents it from wagging side to side. The only internal part that can contribute to sloppy shifting is the hockey stick ball that rides in the interlock assembly. That disassembly is straightforward, but requires dropping the engine and transaxle.

We street mechanics do not get to rebuild manual transmissions. The shifter fork position can only be adjusted on the rails with a test jig that mimics a fully assembled transaxle but with access to the set screws.
Colin

Given that I'll be on the road for an entire year, I want to know that the rebuild was done right. To me this means replacing all the bushings, all rubber seals and pistons and all of the friction and steel plates.

mycoleptodiscus wrote:Given that I'll be on the road for an entire year, I want to know that the rebuild was done right. To me this means replacing all the bushings, all rubber seals and pistons and all of the friction and steel plates.

Don't forget to push for new bearings as well. Some rebuilders get lazy when parts are not readily available on the bench. Of course it will run fine for 80,000 miles, but why not 160,000?
Colin

Well, I have all of my parts except for a spring plate. VW updated a part with two parts so the other one is coming from the audi dealer. There are no real bearings in the auto tranny, just bushings. The diff is another matter. I replaced all of those. Some were totally gone, like the one for the pum pdrive shaft. The only place where I'm cutting corners is with the pump. A new one is $500 and one spot on the pump housing is worn a bit. I figure with all new bushings it'll be fine. This thing is getting a TOTAL rebuild. ALL new seals, pistons and metal and friction plates. It's really not that bad of a job. I should have it all back together by the end of may.

Well, VW failed me again. The part isn't available form Audi, although they initially said it was. Fortunately, my friend Stew had an 010 tranny from a Rabbit just lying around. I scrounged a new pump housing and all the other hard parts I needed! A fabulous day.

mycoleptodiscus wrote:Well, VW failed me again. The part isn't available form Audi, although they initially said it was. Fortunately, my friend Stew had an 010 tranny from a Rabbit just lying around. I scrounged a new pump housing and all the other hard parts I needed! A fabulous day.

Excellent. Keep us posted on your adventure. A nice 35 picture write-up would be swell. . .

Turns out I installed the forward drive piston backwards. Oops. It was an updated part and didn't look like th eoriginal so I don't fee lquite so bad. I had only reverse when I went to try and drive the bus last week.

Did you happen to find the hard rubber piece that fits up into the tranny mount? I get a little movement on the tranny mount when I am in reverse.....I can shimmy the bus back and forth with the tires and shove a stick in there but I would like to make a more permanent fix.

The bus is finally rolling! I swapped in another valve body and everything's great. Evidently I messed something up rebuilding the old one.