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Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:41 am

Question: 181 RGB transaxles... are they narrower from stub to stub than Bus RGB transaxles? How similar are they?

Intending on installing a tall-geared RGB transaxle into my Beetle to raise it up ala' Komander Wagon. Bus RGB transaxles are wider than the normal Beetle units, thus I'm expecting to be doing some machine work.

Any input on this? Thanks.

Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:07 am

181 RGB transaxles have the same wide as the bus .
You have a spacer on each side .
I don't know if you can use the bus torsion bars .
A friend made the swap on a beetle but he used spacers and torsion bars from 181 .
Hope this help you ! :wink:

Fri Apr 06, 2012 12:05 pm

Interesting... taking notes over here...

Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:36 pm

SAW (Sway-A-Way) makes (used to any way) shortened race swing axles. They allowed the drum/disc wheel mount surface to be pulled inboard 3 or 5 inches, depending on the axle ordered. For a drag racer, this reduced the overall weight, reduced the unsprung weight, narrowed the rear track for less wind resistance and allowed for a larger tire to be used for better traction.

SAW may be able to make a 1 5/8 inch (IIRC, that is what the extra width per side of a T2 RGB to a T1 difference is spring plate to spring plate) shorter axle splined and c-clipped for a RGB. You can shorten the axle tube that same amount on each side to pull the spring plate mount back to the RGB location and not use any spacer.

At the same time, you can custom make a no hop setup to eliminate the hopping tendancy of the RGB.

Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:03 pm

joescoolcustoms wrote: SAW (Sway-A-Way) makes (used to any way) shortened race swing axles. They allowed the drum/disc wheel mount surface to be pulled inboard 3 or 5 inches, depending on the axle ordered. For a drag racer, this reduced the overall weight, reduced the unsprung weight, narrowed the rear track for less wind resistance and allowed for a larger tire to be used for better traction.

SAW may be able to make a 1 5/8 inch (IIRC, that is what the extra width per side of a T2 RGB to a T1 difference is spring plate to spring plate) shorter axle splined and c-clipped for a RGB. You can shorten the axle tube that same amount on each side to pull the spring plate mount back to the RGB location and not use any spacer.

At the same time, you can custom make a no hop setup to eliminate the hopping tendancy of the RGB.

These are thoughts that I've had if I even build a full fender lifted oval :D

Sat Apr 07, 2012 7:39 am

Quote: These are thoughts that I've had if I even build a full fender lifted oval

I am building a Oval Baja. I did not narrow the RGB, just intalled a NOS John Johnson No Hop kit. I had the narrowing thought when I had the axle tubes out of the RGB housing's. My thought was to take a 3 inch narrow race alxe and machine it to fit the RGB and pull the boxes inboard 3 inches each side for a full fender application.

Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:45 am

The gear reduction boxes have different gearing thru the years.
The ones from the 50's will drop your gearing stump pulling slow.
From 1967 bus is nearly 1 to 1.

Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:57 am

joescoolcustoms wrote: Quote: These are thoughts that I've had if I even build a full fender lifted oval

I am building a Oval Baja. I did not narrow the RGB, just intalled a NOS John Johnson No Hop kit. I had the narrowing thought when I had the axle tubes out of the RGB housing's. My thought was to take a 3 inch narrow race alxe and machine it to fit the RGB and pull the boxes inboard 3 inches each side for a full fender application.

For true off road purposes I'd think that narrowing the axles would be a disadvantage, (less travel with same camber angle change) but for a full fender car it should be ok.

On the topic of a John Johnson no-hop, my '74 thing at one point in it's life had been changed from IRS to rgb with a no hop kit installed, I yanked that out to swap back to IRS, so I'm keeping that around for a possible future project.

p.s. the easiest, probably not cheapest way to do the full fender "komander wagon" would be to get a barndoor set-up, I believe it should "bolt right in"