To save money, and as an antidote to book work, my college buddy Joe and I used to work on our VW’s together. VW Repair for the Complete Idiot was our bible and if it failed us Joe, who didn’t like big business capitalists, would consult VW of America and do the opposite of what they recommended. So when a friend asked if we could put a bug transmission into a bus, Joe asked VW if it was possible. They said no, which, to us, meant yes. The two transmissions did look alike and VW was good about interchangeable parts.
Since the bus transmission didn’t work anyway, we could hardly make it worse, why not give it a shot? We removed the transmission from the bus and one long, hard day later had it back together with a new, or perhaps I should say working, transmission. Everything fit perfectly. We patted each other on the back and exchanged compliments. What did VW know? We were dumbfounded, however, with the test drive: four speeds in reverse. Believe it or not. We had not the vaguest clue as to why this happened. Not the tiniest hint. To avoid complete defeat we called the owner, telling him his car was ready, and we’d pick him up after work.
We drove there, albeit slowly, in the one forward gear, and parked, making sure there was no one behind us. We could hardly stop laughing. Well, you can imagine the owner’s surprise when he slipped into first gear and went: BACKWARDS! He was more than a little nonplused, but, checking the other gears, caught on quickly, and being a good sport tried to see how fast you can drive a VW bus backwards. He got into third gear, but fortunately not fourth. I do not recommend this. If you must know at about 20mph, backwards, a VW bus will start careening all over the road. Visibility is not great either.
Joe and I took the transmission back out and stared at it for several days until my cousin Carl, Mr. Mechanical, came over, and in about 10 seconds said, “reverse the pinion gear.” We did and, viola! Four speeds forward. With hindsight, it was simple. As power goes through a reduction gear–the bus has them, the bug doesn’t– it reverses the direction the axle spins. By reversing the pinion gear we reversed the reverse, and the bus was able to resume a more normal forward motion.
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