[s-cars] to short shift or not to short shift

[Mtgadbois@aol.com]

I had a 1986 GTI, bought new.  The problem with the trannys was that  VW in 
their infinite wisdom tried to save a dollar or two by replacing a  cir-clip 
with a rivet.  With use the rivet would wear away and the gears  would come 
sliding off the shaft and go through the tranny case.  Guess how  I found this 
out!  It happened out of warranty and at 44,000 miles.   VW did agree to pick up 
half the cost but I have not owned a VW since.   Thankfully Audis are designed 
and built much better as well as having very  decent service people.
 
Mark near Chicago
 
 
In a message dated 8/14/2005 9:09:31 A.M. Central Daylight Time,  
s-car-list-request at audifans.com writes:

Date:  Sat, 13 Aug 2005 23:56:57 -0400
From: "Harold McComas"  <HaroldMcComas at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [s-cars] to short shift or  not to short shift
To: <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Cc:  sola4est at yahoo.com
Message-ID:  <000701c5a084$39047d90$0200a8c0 at Harold>
Content-Type: text/plain;  format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original

Funny, I heard the same thing in regards to VW  trannies. So I will tell you 
my experience with my now gone '85 VW GTI. I  bought it in '87 with 45,000 
miles, the very first mod I did that summer  was install an Autotech short 
shift kit and set it at a 50% reduction. I  have since sold the car just this 
last spring with 280,000 miles on her,  so just when are the synchros 
supposed to wear out?
;-)

I think  improper shifting would lead to the synchros wearing out, the short 
shift  kit just encourages more slamming through the gears. On my GTI I used 
to  pause between gears, maybe 1/2 sec, so instead of a 1 to 2 shift it was  
more like a 1 to neutral to 2 shift, etc. Not really sure if it helped,  but 
seemed to.

Harold M
Manchester,  NH