AAtransaxle install

[vwjedi]

My '87 Wolfsburg is getting the transplant. Daryl talked me into stock gearing for my stock 2.1L wasser and future Zetec conversion, that he currently drives.

Pulling the old worn unit took about 3 hrs, just following steps of Bentley. My version of a rear engine suppot VW 785/1.= a trimmed 2x4 with sliding buckle. Worked out pretty well.

Got the old lump lowered out relatively painless by myself, rear wheels on ramps and trans. on 3 ton floor jack. The shipping weight is 105 lbs, it is pretty manuverable with a well placed piece of wood underneath.

I also have the Bus Depot SS coolant pipes, R-134 conversion kit, Sachs heavy duty clutch/pressure plate, rear main seal, some other bits......I'll post more after the rebuilt AAtransaxle unit arrives from Daryl on friday!
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1987 Wolfsburg T25 still riding out. A bunch of other VW's passed on...

[ftp2leta]

Nice job! But i don't see any rust on that engine???? Something is wrong in there!!!!

Ben
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Working with rust, grease, dirt and dust is a sad truth.
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FI part for sale: http://www.benplace.com/parts_sale1.htm
My site: http://www.benplace.com/vw2.htm
Subi conversion: http://www.benplace.com/vanaru_eng.htm
Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/ftp2leta

[tikibus]

Daryll at AA transaxle is one good guy. Met him at Boston Bob's wake. Your getting the goods.

Clean engine, very nice. Install in half the time. Are you going with Dino or Synthetic? My .02's is to go Dino.
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Happy Trails!
Mark
______________
Founding member of the Empire State VW Camping Club.
http://www.empirevwcamping.org/
1984 Westy - Tiki
1997 Honda Civic -The Green Hornet
1971 Volvo P-1800E- needs TLC

[McVanagon]

[ftp2leta]

Listen very carefully...

I installed yesterday my xx trany from Daryl with a tall fourth.

Something is wrong with the second gear, excessive wining if clutch is press down, i sent him an e-mail yesterday night, HEre is the full reply:

""""Let me get this straight...Only in 2nd with clutch pedal down is it noisy??? Not after its in 2nd and with the clutch out??? Thats a first..not a clue as to what it may be...I will send another tranny asap if you want..can get one done and out on thurs or fri. """""

I have install many transmission in my shop, mostly Daryl one because at first i was dealing locally... and i had plenty of problems with those tranny!

Daryl is 3000 miles from me and he is the only one i will deal with until i stop working on VW. I never had one single problem with any of it's transmission... and one of those is in my van.

Some may think that an error is not acceptable, i will tell you that you know nothing about working on 20+ yo vehicle. Shit happen and shit happen often.

When i see passionate people like Daryl or B.Bob, still working on VW after so many years, i have one word! Respect!!!! I'm sure i won't be working on those as long as they did, far from that, i see the end coming for me not so far away.

Your in good hand with Mr. AA. This is why i deal that that great human being.

I have a sad news today, Vanagon don't age nicely compare to the old bus's, i started to write something yesterday, it's ugly. I will post when I'm done. It's a resume of my past 9 years working on VW but most of it is what i have seen in the past 2 years, those vans will need a LOT of love and money in the next few years if you want to keep them running safely.

Ben
_________________
Working with rust, grease, dirt and dust is a sad truth.
------------------------------------------------------
FI part for sale: http://www.benplace.com/parts_sale1.htm
My site: http://www.benplace.com/vw2.htm
Subi conversion: http://www.benplace.com/vanaru_eng.htm
Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/ftp2leta

[insyncro]

I have a few of Daryl's transmissions here at my shop.
I did not have them rebuilt, but pulled them from complete vans that I purchased.
All are excellent rebuilds and have performed flawlessly.
Not only does he do good work, I have learned so many things from our emails and phone conversations.
He is in the same league with Boston Bob (miss you Bob), for sure.

dylan

[vwjedi]

Glad to hear all the good comments about Daryl. His price is less than German Transaxle in Oregan and comes with 1.5 years more warranty, that coupled with the fact he drives a Vanagon daily with a Zetec conversion got him the money.
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1987 Wolfsburg T25 still riding out. A bunch of other VW's passed on...

[tikibus]

I'm glad to say that I met him face to face. Not at the best of times, but to shake one's hand and have a brew around a campfire... Priceless.

Ben is right. And here is how you do it right. Keep the breather/weep hole open. That is the secret. That is for all trans.
_________________
Happy Trails!
Mark
______________
Founding member of the Empire State VW Camping Club.
http://www.empirevwcamping.org/
1984 Westy - Tiki
1997 Honda Civic -The Green Hornet
1971 Volvo P-1800E- needs TLC

[vwjedi]

The AAtrans arrived as expected on friday, she is purdy. Well wrapped in bubble wrap, cleaned up and more than expected the shift arm appears to have a new ball socket and new rubber boot.

Daryl installed new reverse switch and gasket.

The old one is a little embarasing.

I actually didn't get much accomplished since the new pressure plate hasn't showed up yet. I got the front mount off, swapped the starter, waiting for new throwout bearing too.

The bus depot coolant tubes were a little lack-luster for $319 bones. The silicone hose that is used to connect them were 2 differ. lengths and looked like my son cut them with a butter knife?

I did accomplish drinking a slew of Mas Fina Cervesas and changed my buddies rear brakes and cylinders, he helped keep the corner of my garage upright.

I'll update again when I get real progress.
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1987 Wolfsburg T25 still riding out. A bunch of other VW's passed on...

[HeftySmurf]

Terry Kay make good pipes but is a prick to deal with
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-Lorenzo
90 GL w/ Bostig

[vwjedi]

Ben- I recently cleaned up the engine bay and replaced ALL the fuel lines, befor that she looked like your average dusty/greasy engine bay. Thanks for the compliments though.

Tikibus- You and Ben and others are right Daryl has been a pleasure to work with, I really appreciated his honesty about not needing a taller fourth with the Zetec motor.

Smurf- I have allways been a big fan of Bus Depot, but these pipes are nowhere close to $300 worth of craftsmanship. I had a full SS 2.75 custom catback exhaust and Magnaflow muffler, installed with welded hangers for $220 on my Syncro Quantum. These pipes are a joke. Oh well, live and learn
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1987 Wolfsburg T25 still riding out. A bunch of other VW's passed on...

[HeftySmurf]

I know they dont make them, theyre imported, look kinda like chain link fence posts aye?
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-Lorenzo
90 GL w/ Bostig

[ftp2leta]

My replacement transmission arrived Monday.

I can't believe how fast Daryl is sometime.

I'm happy to deal with him. I'm happy to know that we still have artist for our ageing vehicle.

Ben
_________________
Working with rust, grease, dirt and dust is a sad truth.
------------------------------------------------------
FI part for sale: http://www.benplace.com/parts_sale1.htm
My site: http://www.benplace.com/vw2.htm
Subi conversion: http://www.benplace.com/vanaru_eng.htm
Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/ftp2leta

[morymob]

You might want to read the stickies/info on R-134 into any WBX system before u do a 'convert'.

[vwjedi]

Yeah, might go redtek or something, that project is for another day.

I had my van up on ramps in the front driveway. I thought it looked kinda cool, like the FJ Cruisers on display at the Toyota dealership. The deed restricted neighborhood I'm in thought otherwise so I had to roll her off of the ramps. I had less room to work with on jack stands,oh well.

After making the decision to "drop the tank" to better access install of the coolant pipes. I realized I had quite a bit of fuel to drain also.

This made install a breeze, I know many have said it is not necessary but I just lowered the rear end of the tank and was able to free up alot of space along with pulling and replacing the heater hoses at the same time.

Befor installing the new AAtransaxle, I am refurbing the shift linkage. As you can see the rod and bushings are pretty crusty. You can see what a new bushing looks like next to the wore out gunky one.

The shift lever has a "tensioning pin" that has to be driven out from the inside, I used a hammer and drift. The shift arm feels lightweight, it is soft, so be carefull not to bend or tweak it any.

After some time with steel wool clean up, new bushings and all new boots the linkage is looking good! This should shift smooooove.

Next is new CV boots, clutch/pressure plate and throwout bearing.
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1987 Wolfsburg T25 still riding out. A bunch of other VW's passed on...

[ftp2leta]

Nice job, bravo!

Now please, tell me what that mean! or i perfectly understood what it is and I'm shocked!

[240Gordy]

Ben, it is like a condo council. The title is freehold but there are rules on the title that restrict what you can do on your property. Much more common in the US than in Canada. Quebec may be different but in BC these things are registered as covenants on the title at the Land Titles Office, usually it restricts things like appearance and materials you can use on your buildings.

In this case it prohibits having vehicles on stands or unlicensed vehilcles, vehicles that won't run under their own power, motorhomes and such.

Guess people don't want their neighbourhood looking like a wrecking yard.
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Tencentlife said,
"So, now that you know what you're doing, go to town."
2010 GOLF TRENDLINE 2.5
1985 GL now with more! a 2.1L
H&R SPORT(RED) Springs FRONT , SLAM SPECIALTIES RE6 AIRBAGS REAR

[vwjedi]

"Guess people don't want their neighbourhood looking like a wrecking yard."

True, I agree too. I have a love/hate relationship with the restrictions. I don't want non-running cars sitting in the road and driveways either.

I gotta keep my camp/gear trailer in the garage too.
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1987 Wolfsburg T25 still riding out. A bunch of other VW's passed on...

[Dogpilot]

California still has some of the most offensive covenants on titles. They still have ones that pop up not allowing Black, Jews or Orientals to own particular properties. They are un-enforceable, but still exist on may land titles. Lots of states purged their system of them, it just depends on the state's title recording system.

Personally, I think one should always have a small block chevy engine hanging from the tree in the front yard. It's 'Art,' better yet, 'Kinetic Art.'
_________________
Geology with a Syncro rocks!
86 Syncro Westy AKA "The Bughunter"
98 Disco I
08 Range Rover SC
08 VW Rabbit S
1951 O-1G

[vwjedi]

So I got to the new clutch/flywheel/pilot bearing portion of this endeavor. I tried Autozone's version of pilot bearing remover.......no bueno.

It is a clumsy contraption that uses a slide hammer as torque. You know like a dent puller? WTF? Must have been someone from Chrystler that designed this monstrocity, sorry no pics, I returned it and rented Advance Auto parts version. Now we have something here.

It pulled it out nicely. Here you can see the basic idea of how it cranks it out. Upper left is BUGpack universal flywheel lock from my aircooled days. It worked fine also.

New pilot bearing in place, new rear main seal and all shims in place per Bently manual and things got back together well.

I got caught up in getting things back in so I didn't take many photos after that, but with 3 trys and my wife working the jack the new(rebuilt) AAtransaxle is installed! Axles hooked up, starter in place! She is a saint, we did Mother's day on Saturday and spent Sunday under the Van, I think she really wants to get the Vanny on the road for camping this weekend.

Gotta go see my son's Kindergarten play this morn. then back to finish things up this afternoon. Nothing like working till the last minute.
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1987 Wolfsburg T25 still riding out. A bunch of other VW's passed on...