Vanagon Taller transaxle

[monpe]

Hello, my ‘86 Vanagon has a GoWesty 2450 engine, 15” rims and I need a new transaxle. Does anyone have any experience with a taller or freeway flier transmission with this engine? I’m worried that I’ll loose too much power going up hill.

[kourt]

Greetings. Nice first post. You waited four years!

Are you talking about an automatic transmission or manual transmission?

Also:

loose (v): to let something loose
lose (v): to fail to win, or to misplace

Both verbs work, but I think you meant the latter.

kourt

[Abscate]

[DuncanS]

Thanks, kourt. Another fellow English grammar Nazi. Loose of adverbs drives me crazy.

All the feedback I've heard is don't do it. FAS used to recommend a taller 4th gear, but no longer do. In fact a number who have tried it have gone back to the OG 4th. The general consensus seems to be to just add tires with a larger circumference and the effect will happen in all gears. But don't go too much. Inadvertantly, when I went to 16" trims, my 205s have a 4% increase. I wouldn't go over 7%. But others here will know far better than I do. Matching engine RPMs and torque to your highway speeds is the important issue. Not gas mileage. No tranny mod to give better gas mileage will ever have a payback unless you plan to drive the car a million miles. Even then. a VanEgon would be tough to amortize.

I've always lusted after a 5 speed which is probably a better solution. Or maybe just stick in a Porsche complete with a 6 speed.

Duncan

[dobryan]

I have been running an '87 westy with a subaru 2.5 for over 15 years. I had a transmission built many years ago with a taller third and fourth gear. Stock tire diameter. Hated it. It was great on the flats and mild hills but when I was up in the mountains I'd have to slow down for a curve and would drop out of the power band in fourth and then be stuck in third. No bueno for me. And as mentioned it is not possible to change back without a lot of time and money to regear.

I went back to stock gearing with the next transmission and was very happy with it. Yes, I was going 4000rpm on the highway but the engines are fine with that.

I now am on 215/75/15 BFG KO2s (about 7% over stock tire diameter) on the westy with stock gearing and it works for me since I need the off road capability and love the BFG KO2s. 70mph (GPS verified) is about 3700rpm and while I do lose power the tradeoff works for me. I recently climbed up I70 out of Denver to the Eisenhower tunnel at 11,000 feet and was in forth at 65 most of the way. A couple of times I had to downship to third and went up at 55mph with power to spare.

It is way cheaper to play with drive ratios by swapping out tires until you get what you want. You can always sell off the lightly used tires to recoup 50% of their initial cost. My advice is to play with tires, not transmission gearing.

YMMV.
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Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

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[9.5isCanadian]

[space]

I went Taller 4th, stock 3rd w 16's
Mountains do present a problem for 4th
I have no problem doing 45ish in the right lane in 3rd letting the Amish buckboard pass me by
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82 westy
w:
2.5 JDM Subie
Rear discs

[valvecovergasket]

[monpe]

Awesome advice from everyone! Sorry about the earlier grammar. Hearing the voices of reason I’ll stick to the regular, non freeway flier transaxle and play with the tires. Thanks

[monpe]

Forgot to answer- manual transmission.

Thanks again,

‘86 Westy ( Der Flea )
‘01 Eurovan GL
‘17 GTI

[skills@eurocarsplus]

you have to figure out your torque curve to make sense of it all.

apples and oranges here...but...

when i did my subaru swap in my bay window i used a 091 from the get go because the 002 had miserable gearing.

with the 091 i would be on the highway and literally clutch it to shift into the non existent 5th.

the solution was a built box with a different r+p plus a taller 3rd and 4th.

i am happy with it.

thing is, you need to "re train" yourself in driving it. i'm in 3rd mostly around town, no problems. i can run 3rd up to about 85 if i have to.

biggest issue is people tend to "over shift" or upshift too early. if you get the numbers right...all of them...tire size, r+p etc and be mindful of the gear spread it is possible to pull it off.

it's all in the combo.
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