Transmission drive train snatch '90 4-speed

[RBEmerson]

In the gray area between on the throttle and off the throttle and RPM somewhere around 2K, the engine bucks a bit. AFAIK, that's normal.

What's not normal is the tranny bangs - a lot and I'd call it close to violently. If there was a drive shaft in the drive train, I'd suspect the differential(s) were coming apart.

Add to that, there's a road speed bearing whine. The tranny is a GW rebuilt/remanufactured tranny, about 12 years old.

Unfortunately, there's nobody in my area (Phila, PA) I'd trust to rebuild the tranny. At this point, I'm ready to throw in the towel and replace it (if GW ever has more for sale). Input?
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[skills@eurocarsplus]

you could reach out to Matt Steedle in NJ and see if he can help. Last time I spoke with him he was a bit backed up, so it wouldn't be a quick turnaround (most likely) but could be worth a call

plus he was having supply chain issues which no matter who you call, MAKE SURE they can do your job because of this
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[RBEmerson]

Matt Steedel? That's a new name for me. I've heard rumors about "there's a wizard in NJ" - maybe he's the wizard?

At the moment we're in Grayton Beach, dodging tornado alerts. So much fun...
Anyway, I'm making a to-do list for post trip service.
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[dobryan]

[RBEmerson]

Once we get back from this trip, we'll have months of time for wizardry. At least now I know the wizard's name.
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[RBEmerson]

A bunch of months, and another trip later...

Our Westy is about to get its winter snooze, which means there's now definitely time to address the "what to do with the transaxle".

There are three problems, hard 2-3 shift, road-speed bearing whine, and severe drivetrain snatch

The 2-3 shift has the feel of forcing past a resistance point but little or no sense of "grinding gear-burgers".

The bearing whine is absent when coasting, and is definitely road-speed. I assume something in the differential is wearing, pitting, or otherwise not rolling smoothly.

The drivetrain snatch is bad enough to think something is Really Loose. If there were a drive shaft and U-joint, I'd assume the U--joints going. The CV joints are, as best I can tell, in excellent condition.

Attached at the bottom is a screen grab of a GW invoice for rebuilding the TA in 2011. Of particular note is 4th is now "taller" than the OEM gear. With the GW 2.2 motor and GW EFI, the top GPS speed on the flat, and loaded for travel is 83 (woohoo).

Until I saw the invoice, I had no idea the ratios weren't stock. I now get why the engine seems to be a little ...ah... "thin" in 4th. Any appreciable incline or significant headwind is enough need serious "gear jammin' action" to keep rolling. My inclination is to return to the standard ratio.

FWIW, whoever did the job at GW stepped on his necktie. Specifically, note the invoice shows the clutch was replaced. A little over a year ago (about 10 years later), I had the rear crank seal replaced. When the TA was pulled, the flywheel was dished to the point where the clutch point of contact was a band on the order of 1 1/2" at the outer edge of the flywheel. There was zero wear (original scuff marks still visible) I replaced the clutch and flywheel, of course.

At this point, I'm down to deciding whether to replace the TA outright, or have it rebuilt. I tried locating Matt Streedle, without success. Does anyone have for-sure contact info for him?

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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[Ahwahnee]

FWIW - I had my transaxle rebuilt by this outfit in 2020. Everything seems fine.

https://aztransaxle.com/

They can do a taller 4th (Weddle .82), splash plates and probably anything else your heart desires.

[RBEmerson]

Wish I'd known that when we had the Westy in storage off I-17 and Van Buren (PHX) last winter!

for some reason, the PO had the TA rebuilt twice. In '96 someone in OR did either a rebuild, or shipped at a "fresh" rebuilt TA - there's a note about "cracked case" that doesn't look too swell...

Reviewing the PO's paperwork leaves me wondering more and more about what was happening. There's just short of 250K on the chassis. The GW 2.2L motor is the third motor - he did some sort of a rebuild in the mid-90's (when he did the TA, too). Bothe the current TA and 2.2L motor were done by GW when they did service and restorations.

The GW motor still has a small oil leak from the case seam (upper deck, I think), rear seal was iffy, the clutch assy was a disaster.... not encouraging.
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[MarkWard]

Matt Steedle. (Eight five six -229-three four five six)

[RBEmerson]

TNX!
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[Wildthings]

I am going to guess that you have lost the preload on the pinion bearings which is allowing the pinion to get cocked at times and bind up. I have had several pinion bearing problem over the years on both manual and automatic Transporter gear boxes.

[RBEmerson]

Whatever happened, it can be downright ugly in that space between no throttle and "just a touch", and ~2200 or less.
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[Wildthings]

[MarkWard]

This is a picture of my Weddle 4th gear. Maybe 50,000 miles. Towards the end it was very noisy. Weddle said it was expected wear and no credit to a replacement. I’m now running a GT square cut 4th. Hoping the load and wear on the inner main bearing inner race is reduced. Beautiful looking part. I’ll tear it back down at 60k miles for an inspection.

[Bleyseng]

I stay away from that Redline synthetic oil, I aways (40 years in VW's) trust the real stuff like Swepco. I also change the tranny oil every two years.
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70 Ghia Black convert-9/69 build date-stock w/133k 1600 SP-barn find now with a rebuilt tranny and engine
77 Westy 2.0L w/Ljet, Camper Special engine-95hp and with LSD!(sold)
76 Porsche 914 2.1L L20c, 120hp Djet (sold)
87 Syncro Westy Titan Red 2.1L 2 knob 100k miles

[DanHoug]

wow. those gear faces are chowdered up bad for 50k miles. looks like shallow or no hardening. i love the whine of a straight cut gear but maybe not in the van. how is it to you in the van?

[MarkWard]

The sound is noticeable but not a deal breaker if it actually improves longevity. Time will tell. You don't really hear it at highway speeds. Enough other noise that it blends in. On surface streets, I'm usually in 3rd which is stock. If I select 4th on slower roads, you can hear the gear enough that my non mechanical wife asked what that noise is.

The Weddle gear noise was more pronounced because the gear set would get quiet when the load came off and on, most noticed going down a slight highway grade with the cruise control trying to maintain a speed. So it sounded like something was wrong, which it was.

The straight cut gear on and off load, the sound does not vary like it did with the helical gear prior. Eventually you don't even notice it. Usually when I haven't driven the van in a while. For my application, I would not utilize a straight cut 3rd. I spend too much time in 3rd and 3rd doesn't have the same issues 4th would.

If you are going down this route, you may want to consider one of the new GT billet gear carriers. I rebuilt my transmission during the pandemic and the carrier was not available at the time. If it had been I would have installed one. I did spend the money to add a Peloquin since I sold our syncro. Adding the Peloquin for the most part on a rebuild like it sounds you need is not really additional labor. Didn't catch if your's was a syncro or not.

The 091/1 is a fairly straightforward transmission this is relatively easy to work on for someone with average skills. It does require a few special tools that are available for less than it costs just in shipping back and forth cross country. The gear set above was from a reputable pro built transmission specifically for a TDI powered van. There was no provision beyond stock for securing the main shaft bearing. So decided I could better control quality if I did the work. Parts availability was difficult back then. I have not used Matt Steedle, but have talked with him on the phone and seemed very knowledgable. I was looking for factory 3/4 slider that does not come with the hub. We also sent an owner to him and didn't hear a anything negative.

[RBEmerson]

As things stand now, I'll try to talk with Steedle next week.

The more I look into what GW did the last time around, particularly the dished flywheel, the more GW doesn't get the nod by virtue of being all-knowing GW.

There is no chance I'll do the work. Either a major problem could be staring at me, or I'd think I'd found a major problem, and be dead wrong. To say nothing of lacking the wherewithal to drop/reinstall the TA.
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[RBEmerson]

Has anyone dealt with Matt Steedle directly??? ("I know a guy who..." doesn't count)


First - do NOT call 856-809-2466 - their voicemail begins "If you're calling about a transmission, hang up".

856-229-3456 voicemail says "Leave voicemail for 856-229-3456".

751 Maple Ave. in Atco NJ shows up in Maps as maybe somebody's backyard.

I've tried Facebook (which I consider about as reliable as a politician's promise), but, for a business, contact info is lacking.

If I were feeling cranky and irritable, I'd say WTF!?!
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.

[shagginwagon83]

I too had a hard time communicating with Matt Steedle.

My trans didn't need to be rebuilt, but I wanted to because of mileage. He said I would need to ship the trans to him to be added to the 2/3 month queue. I daily drive my van so I didn't go that route. Seemed silly to me that he couldn't take a deposit for a 'placeholder' and I send my trans in two weeks before he could work on it.

I ended up going with Rancho. The total turnaround was less than a month.
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"Jo Ann" - '83.5 Westfalia EJ22e w/Peloquin