T3 AT work with T4? (first post)

[Fekete]

Hello all, I will soon be inheriting a 69 automatic fasty from my father allong with a 1700 type 4 to play with. I have been lurking and searching for about two weeks now and so far haven't been able to find out weather or not the automatic type3 tranny will work with a 1700 type 4 from a bus. I'm really not looking to build a street racer or anything, but there are allot of hills and mountains where I live so I thought the extra torque and durability would be a blessing. My main goal is to have a car with decent gas mileage and reliability and spend next to nothing to do it, my father is a machinist and I'm pretty handy with a wrench so I'm not intimidated by much of this. Keeping these things in mind would I be better off keeping the stock 1600? Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.
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Alex in Albuquerque
(Yes, New Mexico is IN the United States)

[Russ Wolfe]

The T-3 and T-4 automatica are the same transmission. You will need the T-4 drive plate. the bus engine was probably a manual transmission.
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Society is like stew. If you don't keep it stirred up, you end up with a lot of scum on the top!--Edward Abbey

Gary: OK. Ima poop.

[Fekete]

Thank you, Russ. That's what I was hoping for. I'm sorry to waste space on something that seems to have been covered to death, but again I'm still having trouble finding info relating to the t4 conversion relating to an auto tranny. I was planning on welding swing axle frame horns to my IRS for the center support, but I noticed today that it seems the auto is too wide to fit between the framehorns. Does anyone know if this is true or if there is another option for a center support?
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Alex in Albuquerque
(Yes, New Mexico is IN the United States)

[Bobnotch]

[Fekete]

Unfortunately I only have experience with working on common beetle's (70's). I haven't even seen my fasty yet as it's in Texas and have never seen a t4 in person. Hopefully when I have the car and engine in my yard I can make more sense of it. Maybe there's a way to hang the tranny from a bracket run from one shock mount to another? I saw the Kafer brace on Tunacan's site (http://tunacan.net/t4/howto/kaferbrace/index.shtml) but it seems a bit over engineered and convoluted for my needs. I was also looking at the "Moore mid mount" (http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=185543) but I don't know how it installs or if it would help for my aplication. I'd really like to keep the auto as it would be easier for my wife to drive, if she needed to - not to mention I couldn't afford to convert if I wanted to. Keep me posted if you figure it out, and I'll be sure to let you know what I find. I won't have my fasty till at least Halloween, but boy am I looking forward to it. If I can get it to work maybe tunacan could post some pics on his site?
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Alex in Albuquerque
(Yes, New Mexico is IN the United States)

[Bobnotch]

Something to think about, the Moore mid mount is for a MT, to help keep it from moving around. The t-3 AT is wider, and has no mounts to speak of, so it requires a little different thinking. The kafer bar would be a good start for a hanging mid mount, but you'd need to fab some brackets from it, and then figure out how to cushion it (use some sort of rubber mount so you don't get vibration). I had mine in place, using a heavily modified t-3 hanger bar, but I still needed to fab the mid mount. Unfortunately, I've got a few projects going on at the same time, so I couldn't spend more time playing with it (got tired of pushing it in and out of the garage due to it needing some FI parts), so I just re-installed the t-3 engine. Note these cars run great stock, so you really don't need to put in a t-4, unless you're doing it for the cool factor. In my case, I had the t-4 engine literaly given to me (I got it super cheap), and I already had the car, so I thought I'd put the 2 together.
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Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here;
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120

[Russ Wolfe]

I went and looked at my 2 auto's, and they dont have the side mounting bosses. I know that one is a 69 and dont know the year of the other one. I didnt crawl under my '71 daily driver auto to look at it. It may be something that started later in productiion., when VW started planing the auto. in the T-2.
_________________
Society is like stew. If you don't keep it stirred up, you end up with a lot of scum on the top!--Edward Abbey

Gary: OK. Ima poop.

[Fekete]

I wasn't really sure if the t4 would be overkill, it's not really a coolness thing. Well, maybe a little. I've always driven beetles and felt that they were very underpowered, but I could never afford the parts to fix the problem. Also I like the fact that the t4 is sturdier, so I figured since I'll be getting both the car and the engine for free (yeah I know, I still can't believe it either) I might as well go for it. Maybe it would work better if I can get may hands on a later auto tranny it would work better? The fasty runs so I was planning on doing a complete overhaul on the t4 and then start trying to fit it. Knowing me it could be years before I get it done, but I was hoping it would be at least as simple as doing the conversion on a manual. Oh, well. I guess we'll have to see what can be done when I can actually get my hands on it. Thanks again for all the advice guys, I really appreciate it.
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Alex in Albuquerque
(Yes, New Mexico is IN the United States)

[Russ Wolfe]

See if you can find a T-4 tranny. Or a T-2 and swap the the differential portion. The T-4 would probably easier to find. Most of the T-4's sold in the USA were automatics. Very few T-2's had automatics, and they had a lower differential ratio.
_________________
Society is like stew. If you don't keep it stirred up, you end up with a lot of scum on the top!--Edward Abbey

Gary: OK. Ima poop.