TheSamba.com :: View topic - All About my Raby Suby--74 Westy to Jake

Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:03 am

It's essentially a simple process. Use a 4WD subie transmission with the reversed r & p, but retain the centre differential and transfer gears, full setup. Install a rear subaru differential in the front, upside down. You can unbolt the cover plate on that differential and flip it so fillers and breathers are back in the correct place. Now bolt up a tailshaft.

I have adapted some subaru wrx front hubs to fit a beetle balljoint front suspension, but it required some tricky engineering, tooling and machining. But definately do-able. This lets you connect the front differential to driveshafts to front drive hubs.

As I said, essentially a simple process, in practise it takes a little more.
I have managed to fit all that into a Manx chassis i.e. shortened type 1 beetle so quite sure it can be done in a bus.

Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:01 am

Making progress... Steam cleaned the under side of the Bus in preparation for some rust prevention and beautification in the engine bay and drivetrain areas. I can't stand to put dozens of hours of labor into a non-aesthetically pleasing area, so we are going to re-shoot the engine bay body color.

Nice and clean and other than a bit of surface rust its a great bus for such an awesome conversion. We will end up taking the wire wheel to it and then make it look like something.

Start looking for engine pics soon.. This isn't a "junkyard" engine conversion :-)

Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:59 am

Jake,

I may have missed it so forgive me.

Do you plan to install A/C?

Thu Mar 22, 2012 9:43 am

RatCamper wrote: TRN9 wrote: Those transmissions are beautiful! Jake Is it possible to take a suby tranny and modify the front end of the bus to make it AWD? Of course, if time and money didn't mater- we need to still have fun right?

Looking forward to seeing the progress on this bus!

We talked a bit about that with Subarugears. I believe the consensus was if you could actually get power to the front wheels, then yes, with the requisite directional swap on the front too. It'd be a bit of a mess otherwise.

my life goal right there, either a subi or a syncro awd system under my 78 westy....:D

Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:02 am

67Beetle2017 wrote: Jake,

I may have missed it so forgive me.

Do you plan to install A/C?
We haven't really discussed that with this project yet, though it would be a possibility.. The core engine came with a nice A/C compressor :-)

Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:08 am

Why was the stuff purchased overseas?

Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:14 am

notchboy wrote: Why was the stuff purchased overseas?
What "stuff"?

Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:16 am

Jake Raby wrote: Look what arrived today.. All the way from Australia!
Now we just need to finish steam cleaning under the bus and getting some detail work done, then mock the engine and tranny up.. Then fabricate the mounts and get on to the cooling portion. One step at a time and we aren't in any rush.. No clocks here, you can't have fun when rushing.

This stuff. Or were you joking about its actual origin as opposed to a local dealer?

Thu Mar 22, 2012 1:06 pm

If I may...

http://www.aircooledtechnology.com/index.php?optio...;Itemid=30

Thu Mar 22, 2012 1:15 pm

That's kind of amusing.

If the question meant "Why are the transmissions purchased as a unit from Australia instead of purchased locally and the Subarugears components added in house to U.S. purchased transmissions?" Well you'd have to ask Jake. I can only guess. My guess would be that Jake is a professional at what he does and would like to purchase a part which has been made / modified by a professional also, thus avoiding many extra hours being sunk into doing the modifications which could be spent working on the advertised products instead. Plus I'm not sure about the availability of transmissions over there. Subarus are very common here.

Now, that was just a guess.

Thu Mar 22, 2012 1:21 pm

Jake Raby wrote:
Holy crap! Is that sunshine and Not Raining I see in that picture?!

If so, send some of it my way. :lol:

Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:20 pm

RatCamper wrote: That's kind of amusing.

If the question meant "Why are the transmissions purchased as a unit from Australia instead of purchased locally and the Subarugears components added in house to U.S. purchased transmissions?" Well you'd have to ask Jake. I can only guess. My guess would be that Jake is a professional at what he does and would like to purchase a part which has been made / modified by a professional also, thus avoiding many extra hours being sunk into doing the modifications which could be spent working on the advertised products instead. Plus I'm not sure about the availability of transmissions over there. Subarus are very common here.

Now, that was just a guess.

These transaxles were supplied directly by our partner, Subarugears and were built in Oz. We are now tooling up to build future units in house using the Subarugears components to save on shipping and so we have even more control over custom aspects of a project. We don't "buy" a lot of parts, and we prefer to do everything atop this mountain.

Yes, weather has been great.. low 80s during the day and 50s at night, been wearing shorts for two weeks now and we really didn't have a winter at all.

Now that we just completed our 4.2 liter DFI Porsche Cayman engine over on the flat6 side of the house I can work on finishing the Suby specific website and get on with the Suby developments... Its kinda cool when our 2010 Cayman X engine is 200ccs bigger than ANYTHING that Porsche makes today.. Now we just have to prep the car for the Editor of Excellence to review our version back to back to a Cayman R from the factory and I am positive we will annihilate it.. No one in the world has built a DFI Porsche 6, and our first one took it from 3.4 to 4.2 liters and we expect 400RWHP, up 120HP over factory :-)

Tue Mar 27, 2012 6:11 pm

Update:
Engine bay and the drivetrain area of the bus are now fully stripped and prepped for paint and corrosion resistance coatings. This weekend we plan on carrying out all of the mock up of the drivetrain. Following that permanent install of the Suby gearbox will follow.

The engine is coming along well also, just waiting on my camshafts to be completed and finish the assembly. Engine pics will be posted in about a month.

Fri May 11, 2012 10:11 am

Any updates, Jake?

Fri May 11, 2012 11:23 am

brotha bran wrote: Any updates, Jake?

just thinking about that yesterday...hadnt heard much in a while....thanks brotha bran!

Fri May 11, 2012 1:05 pm

Looks like an awesome setup. Can't wait to see more.

Jake, how big is the backlog on an order like this? Think I'm going to start saving my pennies and dimes.

Thu May 24, 2012 7:54 pm

Engine is on the Dyno...

Wire harness is clipped, snipped and terminated and installed in the dyno cell..

Drive by wire throttle is ready to rock..

Custom radiators are being made...

Suby 5 speed tranny is in with custom mounts completed...

The Bus is at Line-X right now getting the engine bay coated, when it returns it's time to get it all stuffed in and start the final stages.. Lots of pics next week. We have been kicking ass!

Someone asked about backlog:
I have not opened the site for the Suby stuff yet and also have not done any advertising. My winter schedule is already filled but I have time to do two more conversions over the summer, dependent upon state of tune.

My "Touring Special" is ready for the dyno just after Ken's engine comes off of it, its a JR26 built from an EJ25 SOHC.

Tue Jun 05, 2012 7:02 pm

Sneak peek... This is a final mock up now that the engine is complete to "JR25 Touring Special" specs. Lots more pics when I get the chance to post them. Its ready to get pulled out and thrown on the chassis dyno.

Not your typical messy conversion~

Tue Jun 05, 2012 7:57 pm

You converted me! I was set to have a grand adventure in a 912 powered Double Cab, but it let me down. Maybe I let it down, but the engine popped a coil and it stopped. End of adventure. BORING.

Come to think of it, ACVW engines have stranded more than a few times. Not only that, I always have to think twice about diving them. They always need some messing about. It's fun to be covered in oil and gas right before I drop off my daughter in the bus. NOT. (Which I can only drive about 3 months of the year, yaaah, $25K bus that gets 3 months of use!)

Done with it, I'm going Subaru power myself. I hope and PRAY the technology from Raby trickles down to guys like me. :)

Tue Jun 05, 2012 8:05 pm

dawerks wrote: You converted me! I was set to have a grand adventure in a 912 powered Double Cab, but it let me down. Maybe I let it down, but the engine popped a coil and it stopped. End of adventure. BORING.

Come to think of it, ACVW engines have stranded more than a few times. Not only that, I always have to think twice about diving them. They always need some messing about. It's fun to be covered in oil and gas right before I drop off my daughter in the bus. NOT. (Which I can only drive about 3 months of the year, yaaah, $25K bus that gets 3 months of use!)

Done with it, I'm going Subaru power myself. I hope and PRAY the technology from Raby trickles down to guys like me. :)

What you mention is what inspired me to develop this program.

A part of me wants to sell individual parts and kits, the other part of me knows the BS that comes with that and wants to avoid it completely by only offering turnkey solutions.