TheSamba.com :: View topic - "Dropped Trans" or "Pay Attention to the Sign

Mon Mar 07, 2005 1:14 pm

This past weekend my wife and I took a little road trip in the '83 Westy down to the AZ desert to check out the wildflowers that are just getting started. Had a great trip down and spent a bunch of time tooling around on the dirt roads looking for that ideal campsite. First day I noticed that it was binding a bit going into and out of reverse. I mentioned that I'd go over the linkage stuff with a fine tooth comb when I got home. The problem got a little worse as the weekend progressed but was never unmanagable so we just kept on with our weekend. As we were headed home on Sunday I was just getting up to speed as we got on the highway and when I shifted from 3rd to 4th I heard a "bang" and the shift lever jammed itself all the way forward into the dash :shock: . I put in the clutch and coasted over to the side of the road. When I got out and looked under the car the front of the trans was on the road. Apparently the bolt that goes through the rubber mount had lost it's nut and had been working itself out. I'm guessing that the trans was canted to one side for a while causing the binding of the linkage. With the bolt nearly out when I shifted, the load on the transmission was relaxed a bit when I put in the clutch and the bolt dropped out and it hit the ground. I'm figurin' I'm damn lucky that it didn't catch on the road surface and gut the entire drive train from the vehicle. I walked back down the road and found the bolt right where the first gouge marks in the pavement were. My wife called the number on her AAA auto plan card and we had a tow truck there in about half an hour. We had him take us back into the nearest town (just a few miles) and drop us at a Checker Auto store. I bought a cheapo floor jack (that fits nicely under the rear seat) and a metric nut and lock washer, and had the thing back together in about 10 minutes. Gave the engine a cursory look and fired it up. Idled beautifully but it was definitely NOT HAPPY when accelerating. I gave it a more thorough look but didn't see anything obvious. It idled great and once up to cruising RPMs it ran just fine. Everything in between was horrible. While accelerating it bucks and jerks pretty violently unless the gas pedal is right on the floor where it's not toooo bad. So anyway, it was about 200 miles to home so I picked the most direct route with as much highway as possible and we got home just fine. I'll be digging in to it in the evenings after work this week and trying to sort things out. I must have jammed something, pinched something, broken a wire, who knows? Had I stopped to investigate the balky shifting problem when it first cropped up this wouldn't have happened. The moral of the story; 'Pay attention to the signs your vanagon is giving you.'

Tue Mar 08, 2005 6:05 am

somehow you must have angered the vw god. Long time ago I knew of this happning to a 79 bay. the trans "stuck" the drop,caught the road and LAUNCHED the ass in the air and flipped it on it's side____at 65 mph. What a mess.your right on with the____if it feels weird....... it is worth looking at. Who wants to pay a 200 mile tow?

Tue Mar 08, 2005 11:02 am

Here's what I found. The not-happy-engine syndrome was most likely caused by a torn air intake boot. When the tranny dropped, the engine pitched forward. Part of the boot stayed with the AFM and part of it went with the throttle body tearing it almost completely in two. When I jacked the tranny back into place and then looked in the engine compartment I couldn't see that anything was wrong. Glad I didn't have any more dirt roads and glad that it was raining most of the way to keep the dust down, elsewise I mighta sucked enough grit to trash my brand new engine. The only other thing that happened was that the connector (that was already broken and barely hanging in there) to the aux air valve became dislodged. Gotta new boot and connector on order and oughta be back on the road soon.

Fri Mar 18, 2005 2:44 pm

It took a week or so to get the intake boot in (damn! those things are expensive. $100 by the time I paid shipping and handling). Got that on and put new locknuts on all the engine and tranny mounting bolts. The thing runs better than ever now. I'm thinking I might have had some cracks in that boot that were causing vacuum leaks. It took care of some surging problems and an idle that kept seeking. Woohoo!! I also ordered all new electrical connectors for the fuel injectors that I wired into place and also replaced the aux air connector that I'd mentioned previously. The old ones were cracked and barely hanging on. I'm quite happy with the way it's running now. Just one more glitch (there's always one more). The fuel pump (brand new, expensive Bosch unit) started howling yesterday. I'm gonna pull off the fuel filter today (also brand new) and see if it's full of junk. If so, then I'll have found my excuse to pull the tank and get a reseal kit for it. If anyone's following this thread the big recommendation is to check all the engine and tranny mounting bolts. My little problem could have been catastrophic. An ounce of prevention.........

Sun Mar 20, 2005 4:10 am

beleive it or not i take a day to recheck the mechanics of my westy be fore i go on a week end trip i got all this stroage space under the diver seat for parts and tools . :D