73 Beetle Auto Stick, stuck in gear

You could shift into Neutral even with the clutch not working.

It may be too late with the engine out, but you want to test to see if the vacuum valve is working. That's on the left side of the engine bay. With Ignition On, you should hear the valve Click when moving the shift lever. There is a switch contact in the lever and it's common for it to not work.

If you're suggesting swapping in a Manual Trans, you need to know this:

Auto-Stick conversion to 4-speed

You need a lot! Helps to have a complete donor car of the same vintage.

A tranny, of course. Make sure it has the same front mount and rear mount design. (It changed in '73)

If you will be using the old engine, you'll need a flywheel, pressure plate, clutch. Make sure the pressure plate is compatible with the tranny you use. (That combo changed in '71)

Oil pump. Your old engine has a dual oil pump. Either replace the pump with the single stage or disable the second stage and block the lines off.

Complete pedal assy.

Shift Lever.

Shift Rod (in the tunnel) Yep, auto and 4-speed are different. They also differed in length by year so you need to get one from a similar year.

Clutch cable conduit (in the tunnel). Some later years already have a spare conduit in the tunnel. Check for this first thing. If no tube, you'll have to snake one in and weld it.

As you can see, it's not a simple swap...

Speedy Jim

After I thought about the manual for a while, I realized how much work it would be, espescialy with the pedal. You presented more than I knew. THanks

But alas: I'm not sure what I did, but after some finagling, the car now shifts into all gears. I can move both selector forks, in all three positions. Neutral, all the way in,and all the way out. My bother clams this was not possible before. We seem to think he jammed the selector arm some how, as he said he shifted pretty hard from 1st to Low.

The trans. is bolted and I am going to put the engine back in today.

During engine removal I twisted one of the ATF tubes/ hydraulic line. The fitting was so tight, that I sort twisted and crushed a small section of the line. I hope it doesn't pose to much of a problem. What do think Jim? WHat would happen if I lose ATF pressure? Poor shifting? or poor torque?

Thanks,

Steve (74 Westie)(working on 73 super a.stk)

Speedy Jim wrote:

If it's completely flattened, try to aqueeze it back into some semblance of a tube. As long as it doesn't leak (or snap) you should be OK.

Did you remove the converter? If so, there is a seal that will probably need replacement.

FWIW, there is an on-line Forum just for AutoStick:

Speedy Jim

Steve: I've had this happen to me on my '74 AutoStick. Check to be sure that BOTH wires are securely plugged into the front of the vacuum unit (it is on the drivers side above and to the left of the engine (as you are looking at the engine with the engine cover open). Many times one of these wires comes loose and disconnects, thus rendering the clutch inoperative. Let me know if this helps.

-Rich