auto stick transmission

[Rick's69]

MY friend has a bug with stock auto stick carbureted and it was running a few days ago then today we put the car into gear and the car doesnt go anywhere. when u leave it in gear and turn of the ignition the car will move a little. when the car goes into gear the idle should lower but it doesnt. any answers?

[BoatCop]

Not that versed in the VW automatic, even though I had one (the wife's) about 25 years ago.

I'll give it a shot, though. Most shifting problems on these can be traced to a vacuum pot. It should be located right on the rear of the engine, a disc shaped thing with a couple of vacuum lines going to it.

[Rick's69]

when i disconnect the power ont the pressure thing and the tranny wont go into gear it just grinds. when its connected, the tranny shifts right in but the idle doesnt lower and the car doesnt move. IT rolls backwards or foward as if its still in neutral but i know its going in gear.

[BoatCop]

Next thing to check is the switch in the shifter.

On the auto-stick, when you push down on and try to shift the stick, it goes into neutral. I don't know exactly how it works, but I think there's some kind of micro switch in the shifter assembly that does this. It sounds like this switch is bad, making the car stay in neutral all the time.

[Rick's69]

i was messing with the car today and i figured out that when the wire to the pressure peice in the engine has power the trans. will go into gear and as soo as i stop giving it power it will engage but it wont come out of gear. so i think it has to be something electrical.