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

[LL - NY]

So you had that happen, too! Fortunately, VW never learned of the extensive
Autocrossing the car had done by the time of failure. 
 As for VW's being designed any different than Audi's, well, I think at the 
time
they were designed for a lower price point, but I'd hardly think that 
they're 
designed "better". Use this list as a witness to that!
 As for the short shift, CobbSports (yup, I'm dabbling in the Dark Side, 
with 
my Saabaru) has an excellent write up on how to shift, and it very clearly 
describes the need for synchros to have an adequate time to work. I'd be
willling to bet that a short shift kit encouranges the driver to hurry the 
synchros,
thus causing the premature syncro (oops, see my VW influence!) wear. Note 
the
problem really isn't the short shift kit itself, it's the driver. 
 LL - NY

 On 8/14/05, Mtgadbois at aol.com <Mtgadbois at aol.com> wrote: 
> 
> 
> 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
> 
> 
> 
> 
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