V W Twin Clucth

[sean sherry]

Now I know.... V W's Twin Clutch Automatics were developed and are manufactured by Borg Warner. Found this whilst researching early Citroen Automatics ( in the Thirties ? )

 

[sean sherry]

My memory also tells me that the fiasco of the Ford and Fiat twin Clutch Autos can be led at B.W's feet. Though most cars are Kit Cars with many items bought in. Mercedes tended to produce their own Designs..... Todays twin Clutch ? Who knows.

 

[Patrick_R]

Very interesting Sean.

 

[c107]

The whole saga of the Citroen Traction Avant Automatic is really interesting - Andre Citroen was going to use the Sensaud de Lavaud transmission, which during testing would overheat going up hills.

Sensaud de Lavaud blamed the citroen engineers for sabotaging his transmission because it 'wasn't invented here' but the net result was that they abandoned it. Then, they had to make the 3 speed fit into the same area where the Sensaud de Lavaud was supposed to go, which was very small. The transmision was a rushed design and would be fragile for the life of the car.

Breaking a tooth off a gear can cause the entire transmission case to break in two. This happened to my old car in the 70s and event to a Citroen Club members car a few years ago. If the broken tooth gets caught in the gears then its likely you will have a broken case. This is also why traction owners are advised not to do a clutch start on a traction.

 

[sean sherry]

Looking in the Mirror....... The more we know ..the more we know we don't know !

 

[c107]

On the topic of transmissions, I've always found it interesting that Mercedes-Benz are the only one of the smaller manufacturers (that I can think of) that design and build their own transmissions. Obvously the likes of GM, Ford, Toyota etc do it. But the other contemporaries of Mercedes never did. BMW use ZF units, Jaguar used Borg Warner, RR GM etc etc. Porsche even used the Mercedes 722.3 in the 928. Other than a couple of exceptions like the 300 Adenauer which came before the Mercedes Automatic transmission, and a couple of the niche 5 speed manuals (e.g. on the W113) Mercedes have always made their own.

 

[sean sherry]

At one time I have attended Technical Seminars in America and at one of them had the opportunity to speak to the Designer of the DG Auto Transmission fitted to the Mercedes 300 Adenauer. He commented that Mercedes made a well designed and made Transmission that did not work properly !! This was probably forty years ago.