Shawn Stanford

I have an 82 automatic and the parking pawl doesn't engage. It also shifts roughly, especially going into third. The parking pawl fails PA inspection.

I read through several terrifying threads on AT transmission rebuilds, and here's what I think I know about these transmissions:

• They are a fairly common Mercedes unit, the 722.2.
• Rebuilding is cheaper than replacing.
• Rebuilding is way outside of my capabilities.
• Greg is a 928 transmission guru.

My indy is going to give me an estimate on fixing the parking pawl, but it seems to me that once you're that far into the transmission, you may as well do a complete rebuild. Is this unit something that a competent transmission shop can do, or should I plan on keeping it in the RL family?

My wallet has a very bad feeling about this...

123quattro

Why not just pick up a decent used one for a few hundred bucks and swap it in?

Shawn Stanford

I got the impression that rebuilding the one I have would be cheaper. I'm certainly open to alternatives!

FBIII

Isn't the 82 a 3 speed auto? Why not wait for the 50% off sale @ 928 Int'l and pick up a later gearbox with the 4 speed. I bet they have some low mileage units.

Landseer

I put an S4 unit into an 84.
Tight fit, and some tweaking of bowden cable had to be done, but it works great.

Lizard928

The 3 speed has many NLA parts,

converting to a 4 speed box will require a different TT as well.

Imo000

Buy a good used one.

SeanR

I'd just buy a good used one and toss it in. For the price of these, it should be cheap, simple and somewhat quick solution.

The Fixer

Hey Shawn, have you change out the fluid yet?
Old fluid gets thick with deposits and causes all automatics to shift
as you descrribed. If you haven't changed it out, try that first.
And second, save some $ and put antique tags on it and forget about future inspections.

GregBBRD

It's going to be cheaper to find a used transmission....always.

How you find a "good" used one is going to be the trick. A good used/low mileage 30 year old transmission seems like a mutually exclusive thing.

Not to mention that they don't exactly jump in and out of the chassis, for testing.....

Shawn Stanford

You know, this occurred to me a little later in the evening after I'd picked up the car. 'Park' is just a gear, right? So if it has a hard time getting into 3rd, it might also have a hard time getting into Park. Plus: I know from experience that if I put the car up on stands and start the motor with the car in park, the wheels turn. And I figure that terrible things would happen if you snapped off the parking pawl, and other than hard shifts it seems to run fine.

So, yeah, I was already planning on taking it in to get the transmission flushed. Thanks for letting me know I'm not being ridiculous.

No inspections with antique tags? Huh. I didn't realize that. I just ordered a personalized tag (which actually isn't here yet). Hmm... If I can transfer the tag to the Cayenne, I can get a personalized antique tag - if I can think of a 4-character field artillery message.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! I already had someone ping me in a PM and offer to check on the availability of the transmission in a 928 they just junked. Seriously: This community is a large part of the reason I was so eager to get back into a Shark!

OTR18WHEELER

I KNOW!, If the VW forum was this good I'd be driving a 1980 white Rabbit, again.

The Fixer

Shawn, the parking pawl is shown in the drawing (#4) and simply locks up a
Rogerbox. Is there slop in the gear selector?
Dirty old auto trans oil is the first thing you should have changed out. Your trans may shift fine.
I recently bought very nice used Ford work truck (score $1200) that seemed to need a complete trans rebuild and after I changing out the trans fluid (probably never done) it shifts like butter. It would hang in gear way to long then clunk hard into the next as you describe. Shifts smooth as silk now.

When the fluid gets dirty it gets thick and doesn't pump as it should. Change it out ! I want to know !

Yes no more inspections ever in Pa with an antique tag.

Get the fluid changed out (and use something good), set your e brake and your good to go !

Landseer

Mine 84 4 speed had a broken parking pawl and a leak. Snapped right off, probably was slammed into park while moving. I bought a new pawl but on disassembly found that the case was broken. You can buy the pawl, I got mine from roger. Again, for me the solution was a later used trans.

Shawn Stanford

I think you were one of the repair threads I read. Scary stuff in there!