In the far left temp/fuel guage in my six there are three idiot lights (and a blank yellow non-operational light). One light is for oil pressure, one light is for generator/alternator function and the third light I can't figure out. It has a horizontal line crossed by a slash. The owners manual is of no help. What is this thing?


Douglas

Left to right, green-oil pressure;red-hand brake (symbol you describe is supposed to look like brake handle);white-non functional (used for Sportomatic oil temp);red-generator. Source: 914 Restorer's Guide, B. Johnson (and my car #637).

Thank you so much, Jim.

Douglas

Doug,

your car doesnt have a sportamatic ?? I thought every car with the dashlight had a sportamatic tranny.

Being a smartass.


B

I thought that was the ejection seat light (usually standard on the late '76s when the factory was just trying to get rid of parts)!

Yeah, like on my car where they ran out of rear alignment shims so they used some metal wedges.......lame.
Geoff

yep....the sportomatic oil temp. hey you guys, is the sportomatic the equivalent as an autostick like used in a beetle?

i "think" sport-o-matic was a real automatic transmission.
the one in the beetle was called "half-automatic".
i sure liked that one :-) my very first bug had one ...
i beat EVERY 911 on a red light.
well, for about 20 yards, then they usually catched up :-)

i thought the Sport o matic and the autostick were clutchless manual transmissions (as in move the gear shift lever into the desired gear and push the gas) anyone care to elaborate?

The autostick was a 3 speed manual gearbox that had a regular dry clutch that was activated by a vacuum servo which was controlled by a set of contacts in the gear shift lever. The torque convertor allowed the vehicle to stop in gear without having to touch the shift lever to disengage the clutch. You could start off in any gear but acceleration was better if you started in low and shifted up.
AFAIK the Sporto was the same setup.

interesting. if it was the same concept, i sure would like to drive one.
i loved the half-automatic in the beetle ...

0 - 80 km/h (~50 mph) in first gear

i had the (electrical) contacts moved to a button on top of
the lever. that way you could press the button to disengage
the clutch. the original setup was a bit flawed for people
like me who keep their right hand on the shifter while
driving. it would frequently disengage the clutch if you
just moved the lever a bit. so, i rerouted it to a button on top.

lot's of fun ...

I know the Beetle system pretty well so I did some research on the Sporto
It is the same system except its a 4 speed


All of the system components are shown in PET including the control valve, ATF and vacuum reservoirs
and shift linkage for /4 and /6 versions.

What's not shown is the ATF pump for a /4 setup. The Beetle used a dual pump, somewhat like a 911 oil pump. On the Sporto /6 the pump was driven off the end of a camshaft. The /4 would have had to use the Beetle type pump but clearance with the fan housing may have been a problem. Seems I had read somewhere that a /4 Sporto was never produced.

almost on topic content: the autostick beetle had a warning light too

The -4 sporto was never produced, but I have heard reports that there were one or two prototypes running around in Germany at one point. I'm not sure how they would have done the oil pump, though.

--DD