Toughening up a gearbox...

[Warks_Dubber]

Afternoon all....

Next stage of things...

Engine plans all under way for the new season.... So I guess the next thing is the dreaded gearbox!

Financial realities mean I will be having to use stock gearboxes for the foreseeable future.

I have a 1970 Bug that runs a swingaxle box. I have one box on the car and a couple in pieces to build spare boxes with....

The question is: What can I do (if anything) to strengthen a box to try and get as much life as possible out of it? I currently run a Kennedy Stage 1 Clutch.

As always, any suggestions are gratefully received and appreciated.

Jas.

[dragvw2180]

 Run the lightest pound pressure plate you can get by with . Keep your eyes open for a single sideplate irs transmission for parts , hopefully with a 3.88 and the heavier duty super beetle mainshaft. If this is a race only transmission you can use an 8 bolt stock diff and weld the spider gears together ( ran one for years, also used fulcrum plates to weld between spider gears as filler ) and create a spool. Alot has to do with your abilities. If you plan to launch it hard I would reinforce the rear framehorns and run solid mounts.  I had time but not much money when I started racing so I did these things.Hope this will help .  Mike McCarthy

[glenn]

and the heavier duty super beetle mainshaft.

No such thing as a "Super Beetle" mainshaft. All SSC (Single Side Cover) transaxles had the same late model mainshaft. So for 73-79 all Beetles and Super Beetles had SSC transaxles woth the same mainshaft and 3.875 r/p.

To the original question... the SSC is not an option since you car is swingaxle and the SSC is IRS.

Do you plan on rebuilding it? If so there's a number of things you can do. Either way you want to reduce and eliminate wheel hop which can cause a broken tranny case.

[Warks_Dubber]

Thanks for the suggestions so far...

Already have solid mounts etc. roll cage will be tied in to the frame horns too...

It's the internals stuff you have given me that's great...

Given limited time before season (bearing in mind car is still rolling shell!) I will probably start with stock box and build a stronger one for when/if that goes...

Jas.

[richie]

So for 73-79 all Beetles and Super Beetles had SSC transaxles woth the same mainshaft and 3.875 r/p.

Not over here, we had flat screen swing axle beetles up to 77, maybe 78 from what I learnt so late double side cover boxes are around, probably the best starting point for a budget race box

cheers Richie

[dragvw2180]

 Glenn , LOL,  I already knew about SSC and previous boxes , I was using the super beetle as a discriptive label so no confusion would be had. Oh and you CAN use the SSC box in a swingaxle car by converting it to IRS , add brackets and componants but what I was suggesting is using the componants from inside the ssc to beef up his swingaxle which I have done many times. Rancho used to discribe the mainshaft as a Superbeetle mainshaft back in the day , I bought the first one from Sam at the old Gear Box Shop when he owned it. What they did was have the shaft ground down and keyed to make the conversion easier but I have made it work by interchanging parts from differant years. At any rate there is alot that can be done without spending alot of money. Mik McCarthy