Stan Galat, '05 IM, 2276, Tremont, IL posted:Ron O posted:Al, I had that combo in my IM and I didn't like it one bit. With the long .82 3rd gear I found I couldn't find a 'sweet spot' when driving around the 80 kph (50 mph) mark. It was too high for 3rd and too low for 4th.
Also, I found the rpm drop, when shifting from 3rd to 4th, to be annoying, unless I revved the crap out of 3rd gear.
^ that one.
I had the .82/3.88 and wanted to love it (really I did), but just couldn't, for all the reasons Ron gave. You'd be surprised how many times you are called upon to drive 50-60 mph.
That stupid gear was what sent my little train off the rails around the bend where nobody could see me. I so wanted it to work, and I felt that it was a matter of too little torque (in a 2110 with an FK43 and good heads, mind you).
vwracerdave over on TheSamba told me I didn't have an engine problem, I had a transaxle gearing problem. It made me mad so I built the barroom brawler 2332. It was still funky to drive 50-60 mph.
Swapping the .82 for a .89 with the 3.88 was really pretty close to perfect, but I wanted to be daddy long-legs, so I ended up splitting the difference with a .93/3.44. Now THAT'S a perfect highway gear, and with a 2276 I can pull off 50-60 mph easily in 4th.
... but honestly the .89/3.88 is probably better for 99% of the guys out there. It's long enough for a highway, as long as you aren't driving 85+ MPH for thousands of miles at a time.
VW was pretty smart when they designed the gearing in the type 1 transaxle; when you shift from 3rd (at 3500rpm) to 4th, the engine speed drops to about 2400rpm. At this engine speed (and road speed) the engine can function and cool itself under most conditions. You have to be really careful running an aircooled VW engine much below 2400rpm in 4th gear, as the engine isn't creating as much torque, pressing on the gas pedal creates more heat, and now the fan isn't turning fast enough to keep the engine within temperature parameters. In simple terms, it can overheat.
Widening the 3-4 gap with a .82 drops the engine speed about 200rpm and now you have to rev it to close to 3900rpm in 3rd gear to hit 2400 in 4th. There's a 5-6mph hole where the engine is running above 3500 in 3rd and below 2400 in 4th. As Ron and Stan both found out, " You'd be surprised how many times you are called upon to drive 50-60 mph." (Stan's words). Stan got pretty good advice from RacerDave (on the Samba), as he called it perfectly; he just wasn't ready to listen.
Gearing his transaxle with the 3.44 r&p was a pretty good solution; Stan got the slightly longer 1st that many Speedster drivers are looking for without spending big bucks on a custom 1-2 mainshaft, and with the .93 4th he closed the 3-4 spacing a little bit (making the car actually more fun to drive; have I told you I love close ratio gears?
) while final drive in 4th is almost identical (3.18 vs 3.19) to 3.88/.82. Nice set up for a 4 speed. He gave away stop light performance (with a 4 speed there's aways a compromise), but if you don't care about that...
Ron and Stan- I know you guys know all this. I wrote it hoping it might benefit some other people here. Al