Joined
·
248 Posts
VW manual trannies suck. If you think otherwise, you probably haven't driven anything but a VW. The shift quality generally ranks from average to bad, and it seems that never they can never get it right.
The solution, I believe, lies in throwing the cable shifter out and adopting a drive-by-wire shift linkage. Every aspect of the manual transmission is unchanged accept that there is no mechanical linkage between the stick and the transmission. Instead, when you shift you actually just trip a switch in the shifter and solenoids on the tranny actually engages the gears. Such a system has the following advantages:-
(1) Because there is no cables, rods or hydraulics, you can make the shifter as light, as precise and with as short a throw as you like. You can also design the gate pattern anyway you like regardless of how the actually push/pulling is done on the tranny side (say get rid of the weird reverse positions).
(2) Because there is no mechanical linkage, you can totally eliminate gear grinding. When you move the stick into position for a particular gear, the system will not actually fire the solenoid to kick it into that gear unless either the clutch has been depressed or the vehicle speed matches the proper engine speed for that gear. So basically, you can drive it like every other manual using the clutch in the normal fashion, but if you try to monkey around by not using the clutch you will still not be able to grind gears. You can't grind because unless your revs matches vehicle speed the system simply takes you out of the former gear and keep you in neutral until your revs match or until you use the clutch sufficiently before kicking into the gear you have just selected. However, since the clutch action is fully mechanical, the driver still fully controls the coupling and decoupling of the engine; this is not Tiptronic, not by a long shot!
(3) The system does not require any modification or re-engineering of the current transmissions. Basically, all you need is a new shifter group in the cabin, a solenoid assembly attaching to the tranny where your shift cables usually go, and an electronics box that reads the speedometer value, rpm value, and a sensor at the clutch pedal. The electronics and logic involved is no more complex than a $5 handheld calculator with basic +-*/ functions.
[Modified by DwightLooi, 2:05 PM 2-10-2002]
The solution, I believe, lies in throwing the cable shifter out and adopting a drive-by-wire shift linkage. Every aspect of the manual transmission is unchanged accept that there is no mechanical linkage between the stick and the transmission. Instead, when you shift you actually just trip a switch in the shifter and solenoids on the tranny actually engages the gears. Such a system has the following advantages:-
(1) Because there is no cables, rods or hydraulics, you can make the shifter as light, as precise and with as short a throw as you like. You can also design the gate pattern anyway you like regardless of how the actually push/pulling is done on the tranny side (say get rid of the weird reverse positions).
(2) Because there is no mechanical linkage, you can totally eliminate gear grinding. When you move the stick into position for a particular gear, the system will not actually fire the solenoid to kick it into that gear unless either the clutch has been depressed or the vehicle speed matches the proper engine speed for that gear. So basically, you can drive it like every other manual using the clutch in the normal fashion, but if you try to monkey around by not using the clutch you will still not be able to grind gears. You can't grind because unless your revs matches vehicle speed the system simply takes you out of the former gear and keep you in neutral until your revs match or until you use the clutch sufficiently before kicking into the gear you have just selected. However, since the clutch action is fully mechanical, the driver still fully controls the coupling and decoupling of the engine; this is not Tiptronic, not by a long shot!
(3) The system does not require any modification or re-engineering of the current transmissions. Basically, all you need is a new shifter group in the cabin, a solenoid assembly attaching to the tranny where your shift cables usually go, and an electronics box that reads the speedometer value, rpm value, and a sensor at the clutch pedal. The electronics and logic involved is no more complex than a $5 handheld calculator with basic +-*/ functions.
[Modified by DwightLooi, 2:05 PM 2-10-2002]
