Herr-Kuhn

I have to say here that my first 3-spd AT simply was not up to the task of over 400 ft-lbs at 3,500 RPM. It could not hold the torque. Leave the automatics to the NA stuff. For all the hype about the 928 Auto being super strong, I have to say my experience does not parallel this. I've never had issue with my 5-spd LSD on the 81 turbo car. Perhaps the 4-spd is a better box, I don't know. I will say power brake starts with the turbos and 3-spd auto were fun. When the car locked onto the road the speedo swing from 30-60 MPH was, shall we say, brief? You could spool the turbos right off idle with the automatic, it made for a fun launch with lots of tire smoke.

Unfortunately too many 928s were slapped with slush boxes. Such a shame.

Bill Ball

I have a time slot open tomorrow (Sunday). Looks like good weather for a change, too.

Bill Ball

John, the 5-speeds don't tolerate high torque abuse well either. Don Hanson has broken gears at least a couple of times. I don't think there is enough information to make a clear statement that the ATs (at least the alter 4-speeds AT) are less or more durable than the 5-speeds, but everyone can certainly voice their opinion.

Jim_H

The 2 bolts at the rear that force you to loosen the exhaust can be shortened . I did this with my old S4 and it made it easy to drop the cover.

Bill Ball

James: Yes, we will try that with Brian's bolts. I tried it before and found that because the boss on the cover plate where those two rear bolts go in is thicker than around the other bolts, there was very little clearance to remove even shortened bolts. Plus they are a pain to undo, although a Gearwrench makes it feasible to get to them with the exhaust still secured at the front.

Ketchmi

The 4 speed autos are great at holding up to the pressures of forced induction. The 500rwhp 89' auto I built has had no transmission problems at all, we simply did a flush and fill with filter replacement and used Redline ATF. Over 2 years on boost and no problems yet. We also have not noticed any significant flex plate movement.

Last night I was in my beater truck and he came up beside me on the right just playing. I was doing 75mph, he kicked it down and was basically out of sight in less than 10 seconds. What a sight! I felt like a proud papa.

As far as the two bolts, just get our X-over and don't ever worry about it again. Plenty of room to remove the bolts and cover.

heinrich

I have a spare 4spd auto box sitting here