Tricks to smooth shifting???
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naskeet
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Poor old K@rlos, he just doesn't get it! Maybe he might after attending my over-subscribed class in gear-selection techniques!?!
K@rlos
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Get over yourself you patronising nob, I drive trucks with 4 times the gears that a type 2 has, have a bash in a heavy haulage prime mover with a fuller RT-18 box and see how good your gear selection techniques are 
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K@rlos
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naskeet
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K@rlos has had his little “JOKE” and so have I!
However, that said, it is probably within the scope of every 1968~79 VW Type 2 owner / driver, to experience close to perfect, stress-free gear selection; but in cases where this has been lacking, it is likely to be attributable to rectifiable deficiencies in the vehicle’s gear-selection system or one’s gear-selection technique or both. Quick & easy gear selection, is important for road safety and the minimisation of both the driver’s physiological & psychological stress, both of which contribute significantly to driver fatigue in the short term and adverse effects on one’s general health in the long term.
I don’t imagine I shall ever drive any heavy goods vehicles or plant machinery, but during my professional scientific & engineering career, I’ve had other exotic toys to play with, which demanded precise, gentle operation & manipulation, to avoid damage and obtain optimal results. During two of my university-vacations in the late-1970s, I drove a few light goods vehicles for the local Co-operative Dairy, including a long-wheelbase, Leyland 440FG, flat-bed, 2½ tonner lorry. This proved to be useful experience, in preparation for driving a “medium-sized” motorhome (i.e. circa 23 feet long x 8 feet wide x 10 feet high) in the USA, during the summer university-vacation of 1981. I never got around to test-driving any of the Scania lorries & buses in Sweden, for which my postgraduate university-friend Kjell B. Gestlöv in Södertälje, designed the transmissions!
Irrespective of what anyone might believe, I always found the gear-selection on the 1973 VW “1600” Type 2 motor-caravan, 1974 VW 1800 Type 2 panel-van & 1980~82 VW 2000 Transporter T3 motor-caravan that I have driven, to be delightfully quick, easy, light & precise to use (no vagueness, slackness, baulking, notchiness or other undesirable characteristics), and even the 3rd to 1st gear, 4th to 1st gear (only on very rare occasions!) and 4th to 2nd gear down-changes (as advocated by the A1 advanced-driving police instructors from the Essex Police Driving School, on my course in 1978) presented no problems.
It’s conceivable, that a lack of appropriate lubrication or wear and disintegration or misalignment of components, associated with inadequate maintenance plus long-term wear & tear, could make gear selection more difficult, but that is something which could apply to almost any vehicle marque & model, and should be rectifiable. Discounting the possible need to overhaul the transaxle for the moment, this might entail replacing one or more of Items numbered 6, 11, 13, 14 [two off] , 15, 16, 19 & 31 (or component parts thereof), on Page / Frame 57 of the official 1968~79 VW Type 2 Replacement Parts Catalogue & Microfiche; several of which entail removal of the engine & transaxle.
Having learned to drive in a Hillman Hunter (manual) and a 1972 Fiat 124 Special T (automatic) during mid-1973 to mid-1974 under all possible day & night, road, traffic & weather conditions [at my request], that could then be practically experienced in my home region, the next vehicle I drove, in early-1975, was my family’s newly-acquired, second-hand, 1973 model-year [manufactured in late-August or early-September 1972 | first-registered in Manchester, England, in mid-November 1972], VW 1600 Type 2 Westfalia Continental motor-caravan, which had first belonged to an Australian hospital-doctor who had been working in Manchester, whom we encountered in September 1974, on a campsite adjacent to the Corinth Canal in southern Greece.
When my father and I first drove the 1973 VW Type 2 motor-caravan in early-1975, it had already covered just over 29,000 miles in under 2¼ years. So by the summer of 1985, when I negotiated the Arlberg pass in Austria (almost 180 degree hair-pin bends and circa 1 in 7½ gradients, which necessitated using both sides of the road), on our way to Hungary behind the “Iron Curtain”, it had a significantly higher mileage. This was just one of our many British & European tours, which included England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, BRD - West Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Hungary & Czechoslovakia. During each and every journey, the gear-selector mechanism functioned flawlessly, which was better than that of some of the front-engined cars I have driven; not including the Volvo 360 GLT with front-mounted engine and rear-mounted transaxle.
What I hope to learn in the future, is whether it would be practical to install a suitable gear-selector mechanism in the 1973 VW “1600” Type 2, for a 1983~92 VW 1900 Transporter T3 five-speed transaxle, whose gear-ratios & final-drive-ratio would nicely complement the power & torque characteristics of my substitute 1911 cm³, VW 412LE based, VW Type 4 style air-cooled engine; ideally with a Peloquin or Quaiffe torque-biasing differential, to better cope with the loose & slippery surfaces, of the types that I encountered in the past, in various parts of World.
However, that said, it is probably within the scope of every 1968~79 VW Type 2 owner / driver, to experience close to perfect, stress-free gear selection; but in cases where this has been lacking, it is likely to be attributable to rectifiable deficiencies in the vehicle’s gear-selection system or one’s gear-selection technique or both. Quick & easy gear selection, is important for road safety and the minimisation of both the driver’s physiological & psychological stress, both of which contribute significantly to driver fatigue in the short term and adverse effects on one’s general health in the long term.
I don’t imagine I shall ever drive any heavy goods vehicles or plant machinery, but during my professional scientific & engineering career, I’ve had other exotic toys to play with, which demanded precise, gentle operation & manipulation, to avoid damage and obtain optimal results. During two of my university-vacations in the late-1970s, I drove a few light goods vehicles for the local Co-operative Dairy, including a long-wheelbase, Leyland 440FG, flat-bed, 2½ tonner lorry. This proved to be useful experience, in preparation for driving a “medium-sized” motorhome (i.e. circa 23 feet long x 8 feet wide x 10 feet high) in the USA, during the summer university-vacation of 1981. I never got around to test-driving any of the Scania lorries & buses in Sweden, for which my postgraduate university-friend Kjell B. Gestlöv in Södertälje, designed the transmissions!
Irrespective of what anyone might believe, I always found the gear-selection on the 1973 VW “1600” Type 2 motor-caravan, 1974 VW 1800 Type 2 panel-van & 1980~82 VW 2000 Transporter T3 motor-caravan that I have driven, to be delightfully quick, easy, light & precise to use (no vagueness, slackness, baulking, notchiness or other undesirable characteristics), and even the 3rd to 1st gear, 4th to 1st gear (only on very rare occasions!) and 4th to 2nd gear down-changes (as advocated by the A1 advanced-driving police instructors from the Essex Police Driving School, on my course in 1978) presented no problems.
It’s conceivable, that a lack of appropriate lubrication or wear and disintegration or misalignment of components, associated with inadequate maintenance plus long-term wear & tear, could make gear selection more difficult, but that is something which could apply to almost any vehicle marque & model, and should be rectifiable. Discounting the possible need to overhaul the transaxle for the moment, this might entail replacing one or more of Items numbered 6, 11, 13, 14 [two off] , 15, 16, 19 & 31 (or component parts thereof), on Page / Frame 57 of the official 1968~79 VW Type 2 Replacement Parts Catalogue & Microfiche; several of which entail removal of the engine & transaxle.
Having learned to drive in a Hillman Hunter (manual) and a 1972 Fiat 124 Special T (automatic) during mid-1973 to mid-1974 under all possible day & night, road, traffic & weather conditions [at my request], that could then be practically experienced in my home region, the next vehicle I drove, in early-1975, was my family’s newly-acquired, second-hand, 1973 model-year [manufactured in late-August or early-September 1972 | first-registered in Manchester, England, in mid-November 1972], VW 1600 Type 2 Westfalia Continental motor-caravan, which had first belonged to an Australian hospital-doctor who had been working in Manchester, whom we encountered in September 1974, on a campsite adjacent to the Corinth Canal in southern Greece.
When my father and I first drove the 1973 VW Type 2 motor-caravan in early-1975, it had already covered just over 29,000 miles in under 2¼ years. So by the summer of 1985, when I negotiated the Arlberg pass in Austria (almost 180 degree hair-pin bends and circa 1 in 7½ gradients, which necessitated using both sides of the road), on our way to Hungary behind the “Iron Curtain”, it had a significantly higher mileage. This was just one of our many British & European tours, which included England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, BRD - West Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Hungary & Czechoslovakia. During each and every journey, the gear-selector mechanism functioned flawlessly, which was better than that of some of the front-engined cars I have driven; not including the Volvo 360 GLT with front-mounted engine and rear-mounted transaxle.
What I hope to learn in the future, is whether it would be practical to install a suitable gear-selector mechanism in the 1973 VW “1600” Type 2, for a 1983~92 VW 1900 Transporter T3 five-speed transaxle, whose gear-ratios & final-drive-ratio would nicely complement the power & torque characteristics of my substitute 1911 cm³, VW 412LE based, VW Type 4 style air-cooled engine; ideally with a Peloquin or Quaiffe torque-biasing differential, to better cope with the loose & slippery surfaces, of the types that I encountered in the past, in various parts of World.
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Maybe there's a useful nugget of information amongst all that droning on. If so I've missed it as I lost the will to live part of the way through.
I've read technical manuals that are written in a far more interesting manner.
I've read technical manuals that are written in a far more interesting manner.
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I agree with Mr. Skeet.
If you’re having trouble shifting, either one or more of the components are worn out/need to be adjusted OR you are a numbskull and can’t properly shift even in the best of circumstances. Only the former is repairable.
If you’re having trouble shifting, either one or more of the components are worn out/need to be adjusted OR you are a numbskull and can’t properly shift even in the best of circumstances. Only the former is repairable.
I'm going to lock this thread now, Advice has been given and its seems to be agreed that replacing worn components and sympathy to an old bus are the key. Thanks everyone.
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