Old school VW manumatic?

Many years ago, I had a girlfried with an old air-cooled VW beatle. It had a three speed transmission coupled with a torque converter AND some sort of clutch. It had a clutch pedal for getting it in gear from a standstill. After it was rolling, the shift-knob was some sort of two-piece deal with a set of contacts that would disengage the clutch when you grabbed the shift-knob and re-engage when you let go.

Any of you fine upstanding grassrooters have any personal experience, info or links to info regarding this strange design?

I had that in my 71 Super beetle. Worked great, but I thought it was a 4 speed, or a 3 speed plus "low".

Is this what was called the VW Slap Stick?

My younger brother had one of those. It was a 3 speed and had a big vacuum diaphragm setup (it looked a lot like a brake booster) which worked thusly: you pushed the lever, the contacts closed a circuit which opened a vacuum solenoid which then worked the diaphragm to disengage the clutch so you could shift. Only problem, if you even brushed the shifter with your hand it would disengage the clutch, unnerving when driving. You learned real quick not to get near the shifter.

I got pretty familiar with it because I had to replace the rubber diaphragm, it had a split. I remember it was a massive PITA.

In reply to Jensenman:

Now we're getting somewhere! Did it just have a clutch, or did it have a clutch and a torque converter of some sort?

didnt they call it stick-o-matic or some crap like that? Eny huu I have never herd eny thing good about them(realy I have not). have to tride the vortex or samba?

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zeroforum?id=9

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/

VW called it Automatic Stickshift.

Porsche called it Sportomatic.

Had one in a 70 beetle. No clutch pedal, 3 speed. Push down on the stick for neutral or just move the stick to change gears. Didn't like the tranny much - popped out of gear constantly and at the time I didn't know jack about dealing with it - although the car was pretty cool. Wish I had another acvw.

"Autostick"

Yes, Automatic StickShift

....or, A-SS

The badge on the back of a car with one read 'VW-AUTOMATIC' but I always called it the autostick.

IIRC Sportomatic is/was a four speed with a torque converter.

Another (German) car that used this sort of setup was the NSU Ro80 saloon, which used this behind a 2 rotor rotary engine. I think they partially did that to "hide" the lack of torque on a Ro80.

My cousin had one when we were kids. Jensenman's correct - the clutch was triggered by the driver touching the gearshift lever...

or the mischievous passenger's knee!

ratghia wrote: The badge on the back of a car with one read 'VW-AUTOMATIC' but I always called it the autostick.

My uncle had one (I can't recall if it was a Beetle or a Ghia) when I was very young that said "automatic stickshift" on the deck lid. What a big ass badge.

Thanks for all the replies. Does anyone have a picture or diagram, or a link to one? I've been googling away and searching the forum links posted, and haven't found one yet. I'm assuming by the functional description that the torque converter was mounted to the engine and the flywheel/clutch was mounted to the torque converter?

http://www.ukpages.co.uk/356/semi-manual/index.htm

In reply to djsilver:

Everything you need to know should be here http://www.vwar.org/

The biggest problem with it was the contacts would get corroded,then the clutch wouldn't release. Or an occasional vacuum leak.

Interesting thread, I have never heard of these transmissions!

On my first day of auto shop, as a 14 year old Freshman, the teacher asked me to move his Bug out of one of the bays.

I sat in the driver's seat, saw a floor shifter and a shift pattern on the dash, but only two pedals. There was no evidence that there had ever been a clutch pedal in there. I didn't dare get out of the car and admit that I didn't know what I was doing. I took a second and third look at the whole setup, moved the shifter to neutral, stepped hard on the brake, crossed my fingers and started the car. Still pushing down on the brakes, I took a deep breath and slowly moved the shifter into reverse. Nothing bad happened, so I slowly took my foot off the brake. Still nothing, so I gave it some gas until I started to roll backwards and out the door. At this point, I was fairly sure that I was doing things right, so I stopped, put it into low and moved forward into a parking pace.

The shop teacher and another older student were watching me the whole time, so I still don't know if I was being set up or not. I got out of the car and handed him his keys as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

First and last time I've ever driven one.

djsilver wrote: In reply to Jensenman: Now we're getting somewhere! Did it just have a clutch, or did it have a clutch and a torque converter of some sort?

IIRC it had both. You could idle with it in gear which to me means a torque converter. IIRC there was a version in the Type 3 (Squareback) which could be driven as an automatic (put the shifter in 3rd and it would shift automatically) or you could shift in the usual 'contacts in the lever' manner.

My brother had a '68 semi automatic Bug. Very different set up. I drove it quite a bit (about 20 years ago!), but if I remember correctly, it had three forward gears and reverse. No clutch. Just move car into gear you wanted, hit the gas, let off, shift and hit the gas again.

I do remember at one point, something with the contacts got funky in the shifter where it wouldn't release. He wired it up (don't ask me how...I don't remember) to a button he had on the shifter. He'd hit the button anytime he needed to shift it.

It was a neat car, but I like my clutch'd 4 spd '69 Bug better.