OT computerless classic cars (was Re: Heathkit EC-1)

From: Fred Cisin <cisin_at_xenosoft.com>
Date: Fri May 2 20:25:00 2003

> > --- "Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" <cisin_at_xenosoft.com> wrote:
> > > > > Still, most any auto is just full of analog computing elements.
> > > > ..."Type IVs" (Squarebacks and Fastbacks) in the late 1960s,
> > > That would be the "Type IIIs" (Squarebacks and Fastbacks)...
On Fri, 2 May 2003 jpero_at_sympatico.ca wrote:
> I think somebody might had missed a shift. The old bug autosticks

Certainly. But the three lines above, that you are replying to, are
referring not to the Awful Shit Stick, but to the Botch Electronic Fool
Injection. Which was introduced in the Type 3s (Squareback/Fastback) in
1968, and were NOT available in the 1960s in Type 1 (bug), Type 2 (Bus),
or Type 4. The "success" of EFI in the Type 3s led to the use of it in
other models in the 1970s. For example, in about 1972, the bus switched
from carbs over to using the same engine as the Type 4, with fool
injection.

By the mid 1970s, smog requirements had made carburetors so complex and
temperamental that even the most trivial problem was a real hassle.

By the end of the 1960s, the Type 3 was available with a REAL automatic
transmission. (In the U.S., the bug was the only model that ever had the
Awful Shit Stick.)


> I think somebody might had missed a shift. The old bug autosticks
> came with manual box and clutch, has a sensitive sensor
> built into shifter handle (according what I see in bug/bus aircooled
> newsgroups),

Newsgroups are a great source of information. Removing the engine
yourself is even better.

> touch it effectively "pushes clutch in" instead of your
> left foot. It's electronics/vacuum operated and very crankerous to
> maintain.

Awful Shit Stick/"Auto Stick Shift" had a torque convertor of some sort,
NOT a clutch (pressure plate and friction disc). Once you got to the
transmission itself, it was, indeed, manual. But it was only 3? speed,
NOT the "normal" 4 speed manual of all of the other VWs.

> Chrysler is working on and patented number of them on an
> "automanualic" using clutches instead of converter. I'm watching
> that with keen interest. It's there in www.allpar.com

With significantly more engine power than the bug had, it certainly could
have worked.
Received on Fri May 02 2003 - 20:25:00 BST

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