Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 11:32:33 -0700
Reply-To: Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: AA Transaxle: Happy! Relevant Info, Long.
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Eion is the owner, he bought out his father awhile back. He is a Vanagon expert and does good work. H uses AA Transaxle for manual transmissions and Ed's Transmissions for automatics, the two best shops in the area. Eion now also does Subaru conversions along with the Bostig, which he has done since its inception. He's the only guy I'd take my Vanagon to when I get too old or lazy to lift a wrench. If I had an extra $10k lying around I'd have him do my Subaru conversion next week.
Did you refill with synthetic gear oil? It makes a difference in shifting.
Stuart
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Neil N
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2014 10:53 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: AA Transaxle: Happy! Relavant Info, Long.
Hey folks.
First off: a big "thanks" to Matt and Erica at AA Transaxle. They provided assistance with relevant details and got a rebuilt to me in a timely fashion. I have every confidence that this unit will provide many miles of use. Kudos to you both for continuing to support the VW community!
I wasn't up to the task (health issues) of swapping transaxles and since the old transaxle stuck in 4th again while in US, I had Tec Shop in Seattle do the R&R. Tec charged what appeared to be a flat rate, which seemed high, but then I don't often use a mechanic so my opinion isn't that valid. That said, as promised, they checked over other things while "in there", did other work as time and details permitted, and AFAIK Eion (one of the owners) did the work; IMO, it seems they
are very Vanagon knowledgable folks. Image of shop (my brown Bus
shown with hatch up): http://tinyurl.com/po2muhq Eion spent time listening to my input, the job was done on time. FWIW, staying overnight at Dash Point State Park situated me close enough to Tec (Haller Lake area) that I made the trip in about 45 minutes.
I'd posted earlier regarding shift pattern difference and some difficulty shifting. Based upon an email from Matt, and my own knowledge, since the rebuilt transaxle is "tighter" (correctly so), and drivetrain may have gotten slight repositioned during R&R process, this likely affected the shift pattern. Specifically 1 - 2 shift which also affected 3 - 2 shifting. While in camp at Manchester State Park, I made *small* adjustments (like 2 mm max movement) to the shift lever base. This really helped align the 1 - 2 shift pattern but the shifter still doesn't feel as good (normal) as the one in my lower mile 1988 Westy. Based upon an observation made by Tec Shop, and pedal feel, it may be that my clutch slave is starting to fail. This, and possible required adjustment to shift linkage, may be the causes of poor shift feel.
Neil.
--
Neil n
Blog: tubaneil.blogspot.ca
'88 Westy http://tinyurl.com/c8rlw6p
'81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco" http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
Vanagon VAG *Gas* inline-VR Engine Swap Group:
http://tinyurl.com/d7gd5ej
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