So I’ve done a little digging through here on the forum and from what I can see there has only been one confirmed automatic conversion done to a 914, on the forum at least, using a three speed from Audi. Does anyone know if anything else has ever been done? What ever came of this conversion? Anyone on the forum own it? And yes, I know, even mentioning an automatic is like sacrilege, I get it. Please nobody come for my throat

I did one for a customer back in the late 80s. I put a Audi automatic in a 914 for a customer that lost his left leg. With a 2.0, it wasn't too bad driving, but it was not up to the performance of the 5 speed.

I used a 911 sportomatic pedal box, and an vanagon shift console. No, it was not the one you see in all the pictures. I actually copied that one.

I don't know what happened to the car after that.

Clay

Clay, thanks so much for your response! How expensive of a job do you think it would be in todays market? Crazy undoable?

I would look into a vanagon transaxle. Its easier to bolt up. You can flip the ring and pinion when it is rebuilt, and have a mid engine automatic. But everything is going to be high mileage. The odds of getting a good one are slim.

Maybe a Porsche tiptronic and a six for the car would be a better option.

Clay

I think the VW fastback and squareback were available with an automatic.I also hink the VW 411 was available with an auto this would be best if you could find one because it was used with TY4 engine. Try looking at "www.thesamba.com" there is a classified section for them.

MANY moons ago I had a Type 3 Squareback with a clutchpedal-less transaxle. I don't call it an "automatic" because even though it had a torque converter (for getting going from a stop) I think it was actually a manual transaxle with a vacuum-operated clutch. Any time I moved the shift lever it opened a valve or switch to allow vacuum to actuate a canister to disengage the clutch.

I don't recall it was a particularly fun thing to drive. I didn't keep it very long and swapped the car for my dad's manual Squareback.

As an aside, I don't call my DSG-equipped GTI an "automatic" either, even though I can let the computer do its thing on its own...when asked, I reply it's a "computer-controlled manual transaxle."

https://tgadrivel.blogspot.com/2012/03/auto...-automatic.html

Not sure if this is still valid advice but found it searching for 914 Sportomatic.

Ron



Jon H.
Sep 17 2016, 06:43 AM
The guys a SubaruGears have a adaptor plate/flywheel to mount a type IV motor to a subaru manual transmission. The bolt pattern is the same for the automatic transmissions so the adaptor plate would work but I'm not sure what you would do about mounting the flex plate to the engine. You could email tom at SubaruGears and ask, great guy, awesome customer service. Of course you would also have to sort out the shifter.

Clay what years would I be looking for on the vanagan transaxle?

The Vanagon trans spins the wrong way unfortunately. I made that recommendation to another member myself before realizing it. Not sure if you could flip it but that would be quite a bit of work. Subaru Gears makes a conversion kit that will reverse the way the 4EAT transmission spins and convert it to 2WD. You could also look at an early 2000's Passat trans (similar to Boxster).

Clay did you do that Malaga red car that computers4kids owned a while ago? That was a nice one. Very clean conversion.

i remember those things. some type 3 cars down here had that box. called a semi automatic. it was restricted to only the fast back models.

i believe the 411/412s did have a fully automatic slushbox in them. never sold down here. might have been USA only? i did drive a 412 once down in texas. an auto.
it was very very slow.

I was thinking about converting to an auto as I get older.
Best way I found was to buy an auto miata.
Much cheaper, cold ac, hot heat, and an easy opening roof.
Then sell the 914 to somebody who can still drive a manual.

That's the Sport-O-Matic that was also available for the 914 and 911.

I had a '72 beetle with one and it was awesome.

VW buses had the option of automatic form 73 model year through the end of production. I don't know about whether it's possible to run one in a mid engined setup though. Parts are all pretty rare. I couldn't even find part numbers or descriptions when I made this part finder bus site. Page 31 – 33 here:

https://slicedbread.nathansdesign.com/?page...ftrightspread=0

The tool tips and part list view I had to just put question marks for everything but the hardware.

@nathanxnathan .

i see you are a bit of a bus fan.
i had a look at your parts catalogue website. very nice graphics job you did with that.

some of us 74 1.8 owners did some research last year into the introduction of L Jet in the 1974 914 range - which by logic of course means the introduction of L jet into the VW range. we found out some pretty interesting stuff and around the edges of it info about the VWs of the same time.

VW had a lot of trouble with the full automatics for 1974 model year, particularly for the californian cars. i'm not sure on the exact technical reasons, but VW could not seem to get the D-Jet set up to work with fully auto boxes and pass emissions in california - and that may have been one of the prime reasons for developing L jet with bosch and getting it into their cars as soon as possible.

turns out the california 412 with full auto was in fact the first car to have L jet from august 1973 - about 3 months before the 914 which didn't start production until later in the 73 calendar year.

it also looked like theoretically there was some kind of fully automatic (?) bus for california that also used L jet with a 1.8 that is three months after the 914 and isn't approved by CARB in california until Jan 74. so it was late for the model year and may not even have made it off the boats and into the showroom until a couple of months after that? maybe late march or april 74 if they were lucky. i read another account that said that VW basically quietly dropped the auto bus in california for one year - the 1974 MY.

so its a funny time during the 74 model year in terms of the full auto VW models.

strangely VW kept selling the 412 with the D-Jet 1.7 and a semi auto box and even a full manual box in the other 49 states for the 74 MY. but they did not bother with the 914s, they just sold them all with the 1.8 L Jet across all states (but with a very subtle and very minor adjustment for the cal cars).

anyway - thats what we stumbled across the edges of. mostly as a result of finding the 1974 MY CARB documents for all the VW models.

ps

another thought too with tracking down parts etc for auto buses.
i suspect automatic gearbox buses were entirely restricted to the USA market?
in the rest of the world an auto vw was a rare thing.
no one drove automatics in the rest of the world - the exception being large luxury cars.
like in australia. literally only one model ever had it - the type 3 fastback.
(also the only VW down here to have EFI option).

so if you reference a parts manual/catalogue that is of european origin or was for the european market i think it would have almost zero in it on auto gearboxes and part numbers.

reason i say this is i have two 914 parts catalogues.
one of them is of european origin.
it contains all the same parts diagrams as the USA region catalogues but lists nothing on the 1.8 L jet fuel injection parts in the parts description pages. but it does list all the 1.8 AN engine parts for the twin carby 1.8.
that was the first catalogue i ever found.

later i came across a USA parts catalogue.
it lists all the 1.8 L jet parts but does not list any of the 1.8 carby engine parts.

so they had parts catalogues for regions and markets.

The Bay Window buses and Vanagons had Type 4 engines with automatic transmissions. Take at look at the Samba website. There was someone on there who was putting a VW Passat auto box in his bus, so there must be way to swap the ring and pinion gears so the box has 4 forward and one reverse gear. An Audi A4 auto trans might also work, since Audi's had longitudinal engines for quite a while.

Here's a link to using a Passat auto box in a Bay Window VW Bus.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=765311

There is even a kit he mentions for doing the ring & pinion gear swap so the Passat box works in a Bus. However, you probably would NOT need to swap the ring and pinion gears for a 914 since the engine would be in front of the trans, instead of behind it like a VW Bus.

Volkswagen Autostick

Marketed as the Volkswagen Automatic Stickshift, the three-speed manual transmission was connected to a vacuum-operated automatic clutch. The top of the gear shift was designed to easily depress and activate an electric switch, i.e. when engaged by the driver's hand. When pressed, the switch operated a 12-volt solenoid, in turn, operating the vacuum clutch servo, thus disengaging the clutch and allowing shifting between gears. With the driver's hand removed from the gearshift, the clutch would re-engage automatically. The transmission was also equipped with a torque converter, allowing the car to idle in gear, like an automatic. The torque converter was operated by transmission fluid. This would allow the car to stop in any gear and start from a standing stop in any gear.

The Autostick debuted on the 1968 Volkswagen Beetle and Karmann Ghia at mid-model year along with a fully-independent rear suspension that debuted in August 1968 for the 1969 model year. VW ended Autostick production with the 1976 model year.

yep that the version VW had down here @SirAndy .
you had to shift them, but no clutch pedal. same as a porsche sporto.

NSU RO80s had it too. have driven one of those. very fun experience and not slow.
really suits the rotary engine too.

the type 4 cars in the USA seem to have had a full slush box type of gearbox.
and even some type 3s. but not type 1 and k g s. they got the box you are talking about.
he CARB documents we have distinguish between two types of auto gearbox.
there is a SA abbreviation standing for Semi-Automatic.
and A abbreviation standing for Automatic.
the carb docs list the SA for the type 1 and k gs.
and have A listed for the type 3 and type 4 cars.

i only ever drove a 412 once when i was in the USA thirty + years ago.
my memory was it was a full slushbox but its a long long time ago.

It is pretty interesting how the developments played out between the models.

I'm not really an fi bus expert, mostly I'm into 72 and 73 my Buses

Buses only ever had L jet though. For 74 my , it was just the California automatic buses that were fuel injected, then all buses 75 and after. It seems like the bus being heavier/less aerodynamic but their trying to pass it off as a "Station Wagon" they had to take some drastic measures. The 74 bus fuel injection is a bit different from the versions that came after, so maybe those changes are what was CARB approved in January. I doubt it changed during the model year but idk.

The late parts fiche is way less detailed about what came before the time of printing, and the early bus parts books I've only seen the 71 version (which covers 72 my).

The site I did makes use of a rare "visual" catalogue, meaning there isn't an accompanying list of the parts. It a cloudy period 73 and 74 in what info is available for buses — forgotten by the late references and not included in the early.

Here's an interesting list of vehicles the bus 003 was also in.

google doc list

I think they went to the 010 after the 003 which was the Vanagon box, but there are early and late, the late (84 my I would think) had a watercooled exterior cooler. I read Kennedy sells a kit to convert those to air cooled.

I'm all about manual transmissions though. That's like what I'd look for if I were to buy even a new car, like oh base model has a standard, I get all excited lol

@nathanxnathan

yeah, i am with you on the manual gearbox.
its got to the point in aus where you are really struggling to find a new car that has one.
usually they are base model hatchbacks or light commercials if available.
everything else is a slur box or a steering wheel paddle shift.
and anything remotely performance is only paddle shift.
the market turned very quickly over the last 10 years.

even rumoured that young car thieves won't steal a manual car - it seems they don't know how to drive one!

----

here is the little bit of info i found in L jet research.

74 412.
only auto approved for sale in california period. with 1.8 L jet.
in rest of USA you could have the auto and it was a 1.8 L jet or you could get a manual it seems and it was with the 1.7 D jet engine. they had a mixed engine lineup in 74.

Click to view attachment

i went back and looked at the CARB stuff we found.
i was a little incorrect.
in fact it would appear that VW did not succeed in getting an automatic bus past CARB for 1974 MY. they did get a ED-a engine approved which was a 1.8 with L jet, but only paired with a Manual Transmission. this was slightly different to the EC engines in the 1.8 914 and the 412. maybe different camshaft? certainly different flywheel. maybe some other detail differences. they all had the same air flow meter and the same ECU.
the bus had exhaust gas recirculation, slightly different system than 412. the 914 did not have EGR.

so its likely that the auto bus in 74 was only available in 49 states and not sold at all that year in california. it certainly did not have CARB approval.

we only ever found CARB documents which are still archived on their website.
was never able to track down the more general EPA documents from the same era covering the 49 states.

Idk about no automatic Buses in California for the 74 model year — it's hard to believe. Only going by threads on thesamba.com baywindow forums, but my findings say they did exist, and were the only 74 buses that had fuel injection which is the ED engine. A guy you could message is raygreenwood, that guy is amazing, his knowledge of buses and 411/412's.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw//forum/profile....le&u=168581

Kind of on-topic though, I read the 1700 auto cam moves the power band of the motor down to peak at 4200 rpms and limits overall power.

An old girlfriend had one, and when i drove it i had a bad habit of resting my hand on the shifter. which disengaged the clutch. took a long time to get over that.

Hi,
Found this website for vw bus rebuilt automatic transmission

https://www.germantransaxle.com/VW-Bus-3-sp...mp;&id=1404

Hope it helps

Pedro

I saw this the other day, thought about this thread.
https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/pts/d...7515842081.html