Manx Club

Anyone ever try a Autostick in a Manx. If so any problems.

Seems like it would be great for drag racing or rock crawling..Never seen one in a buggy though.

I have heard of a guy here in Australia who runs a type 3 auto with a Subaru engine. He hasn't reported any problems. If you had the stickshift auto from the Beetle, where would you mount the vacuum canister and trans fluid reservoir? I wonder how the switch on the gearstick for the clutch would handle the rough stuff? Would it cause the clutch to disengage when you go over bumps? The auto would be good for taking off in sand.

The problem with the Bug Autostick it's uses a clutch disc in front of the torque converter. It is only a 180mm in diameter. This the same size the was used in 1300cc and earlier engines. Trying to use a larger engine than a 1600cc or larger diameter tire will more than likely cause the disc to wear faster than normal. Over the years I have replace many clutch discs on stock powered Autostick Bugs.

Ken Trongo put a type IV automatic in his B&W (blue and white) buggy. I went on a run in it with him once, it worked perfectly. These threads from the RBC site talk about it: http://p066.ezboard.com/frbcdunebuggyfrm20.showMessage?topicID=55.topic http://p066.ezboard.com/frbcdunebuggyfrm18.showMessage?topicID=703.topic http://p066.ezboard.com/frbcdunebuggyfrm18.showMessage?topicID=692.topic

Ken used a automatic out of a VW Bus because of the lower ratio ring and pinion then in a type III. Bus had 2 ratios 4.45 to 1, 4.36 to 1 Type IV 3.91 to 1, 3.72 to 1 Type III 3.67 to 1 There was a buggy at Lone Pine 2 years ago that had a type III automatic it it. He told me it was not really low enough geared for running in the dirt.

The lower ratio is much better in dirt. I have a type 3 Squareback for the street and the gear ratio is great for the freeway, not dirt like you say.

I wonder how big of a deal it would be to change the stall speed in those torque converters??? That would give more rpms come launch time.

[QUOTE="fubar"]I wonder how big of a deal it would be to change the stall speed in those torque converters??? That would give more rpms come launch time.[/QUOTE] Maybe get a smaller torque converter from another 4 cylinder car. The V8 drag racing guys over here that are on a budget for example get a torque converter out of a Gemini (a 4 cylinder Holden) and fit into the their V8 auto transmission giving them a much higher stall speed. I'm not sure how reliable this would be though. It's not really an issue for those guys.

When I used to help my pops rebuild automatics it seemed like it was pretty reasonable to send the domestic (US) converters out to be rebuilt. If I remember correctly they would cut them open to do it and weld them shut when they were done. The stall speed was just a matter of changing the angle on the stator blades. Or maybe they changed the blades completely? Never seen them apart. Most of the time we would have them made into "RV converters" whatever that was. I have heard of using the old Vega(4cyl) TV's in the GM Hydrmatics for racing.