Semi-Automatic Transmission

Subtopics as follows -

Dave asked - How do they convert a semi-automatic transmission to manual? Replace the transmission, or just the arrangement of the hockey stick or something?

Rob responded - The two gearboxes are identical apart from the auto missing 1st gear, so it's a simple matter of installing a manual gearbox, together with the clutch assembly which replaces the torque converter. The only tricky bit is installing a clutch cable tube through the tunnel - and some semi-autos were built with that tube in the car (unused). You can tell whether it has the cable tube from the welds where it's fixed to the tunnel near the rear gearshift coupling.

You need the manual pedal cluster of course, and the manual gear shift lever, and then remove the vacuum bottle and torque converted fluid bottle (under the rear fenders), and that's it. You end up with a couple of unused wires in the engine bay - no biggy.

Question from a forum reader - Help! I recently experienced a gush of transmission fluid from a hose that sits on the right lower side of my engine compartment. After close examination, I discovered that it was basically dryed out/rotted. Can you provide instructions on how to change this hose and tell me how to trace it from the engine compartment to the other end of termination somewhere in the wall or underside of the car?

Rob responded - I can't help you directly, because my autostick was converted to manual before I bought it and I've never owned an autostick, so have no direct experience in working on the autostick components.

However, that tank on the right side of the engine bay holds Automatic Transmission Fluid (Dexron 11 or similar) which is needed for the torque converter (the "auto" part of the autostick).

You need hose which is suitable for automatic transmission fluid. The bottom end of the hose should be attached near the bell housing (right side) via a banjo fitting, the hose is swaged to a hollow metal fitting which is bolted to the fitting near the right side engine mount. The similar return line is mounted next to it, and this line runs up to the top of the ATF tank.

You could try a search on John Connolly's site - Aircooled.Net. He has most parts for VWs, and if he hasn't got it, he can get it (you'll find an e-mail address on his Web site.)