Subaru infestation.

[syncrodoka]

Oettinger wbx6 info- http://www.wbx6.com/

[D Clymer]

[Mundopacheco]

I wanted to address Burley's 'modest self pat on the back.' It's funny that he popped up and made that comment, because, earlier in this thread, there was an inquiry, maybe two, about his trailing arms, but not one of the players in Alaric's garage mentioned his name. I found that strange, but I just read on, until I was reminded by Burley's response. In short, very little to do with patting himself on the back, and everything to do with credit where it is due. I'm just saying..........
Miguel

[syncrodoka]

Burley is the only person that I know of that even offers this service. I think people assume that they are his parts because of that.
Without those modded trailing arms many NA spec vans would have trouble going big.

[iltis74]

[Mundopacheco]

Iltis, right, I don't think there's any harm intended and I didn't mean it that way. I realize those spring perches are Eric's.....I'm installing this Burley/Abercrombie, trailing arm with spring perch combo in my garage as we speak. Quality work for sure, and it seems that's the direction this thread is taking too. Very curious and can't wait to hear the results.
Miguel

[wolfsburg4x4]

[insyncro]

At this point....hats off to all vendors of Vanagon related parts.

The pat on the back should go to Derek Drew for keeping us informed, keeping NLA and very hard to come by parts available and for his time, investment and efforts to build an amazing vehicle.
This thread along with the 930 conversion thread should make it possible for many more Syncro owners to service and upgrade there vans at post R&D pricing.

Thank you Derek.
I hope you are enjoying your van!

dylan

[Alaric.H]

Here is a new bumper hitch from Burley motor sports it is heavy and way
over built. It is built to winch your self out of well anything.

[derekdrew]

This is a new model of the hitch that includes "outriggers" that extend the metal side to side to help protect the vehicle from corner hits. Was there ever a time you noticed how many vans with metal rear bumpers had the corners pressed in? I once had $1,400 of damage to the rear corner of a van after somebody backed it into a tree. Others have lost their entire vans because there is essentially no protection in the rear from somebody hitting a rear corner. This hitch is an evolved version of the Burley hitch that was on Samba maybe six months ago or so. It contains heavy duty winch attachment points, and Burley designed it so I could also use the receiver hitch point to attach my "portable" 8,000lb winch.

As you will see later, the metal hitch from Burley will be almost entirely hidden within the black plastic bumpers. Silicone glue goop will be applied inside the black plastic bumper and then saran wrap applied over that. The bumper will then be pushed on to and affixed to the metal trailer hitch, and the assembly will be allowed to dry. This procedure will allow the goop to act as a kind of anti-cracking backplate for the plastic bumper to reduce the number of times the rear bumper cracks and must be replaced.

Since I anticipate cracking my rear bumper a lot backing into things in the night in the woods, I ebayed up a bunch of front and rear black plastic replacement bumpers for about $100 each.

The reason we are doing this piece now is because it ties in later with the skid plate to help make an indestructo underside.

My goal is to find a parking lot with a lot of steel concrete filled pillars built to a height about 4" or 5" above the height of the bottom of the van, and then I'll drive back and forth over them repeatedly bashing them at 15 mph, having the van leap up and off of them and then back down on the pavement. If there is no damage, that'll mean I'm good to go.

Then, we'll get a crane and drop the vehicle repeatedonly onto these metal posts at every possible point under the vehicle to make sure no damage or stress is introduced at any point.

The propane tanks will be coming out before we do this since I don't want any assistance to lift the van off these posts from explosions under the sides of the middle of the van or else the tests might not be accurate.

The design off this trailer hitch won't be fixed until after the design of the skid plate is fixed. After that, I am sure that production of multiple units will begin. I need to check a few things first.

In the next weeks, I am thinking that we will leave the rear axles out and drive the vehicle over solid rock walls at various heights (like, 2", 3", 5") to make a map of rpm vs. the ability of the vehicle to surmount these obstacles, all power going through the VC. Then, we'll heat up the front diff to 212 degrees Fareignheight and repeat the tests to see if the heat causes the front diff to be more activated.

Below is a picture of a disposable toothbrush you can use when traveling, and it doesn't require any toothpaste.

Since these are made out of plastic, we are testing them below just to make sure they are happy to be exist at 212 degrees F without softening.

They make a lot of these toothbrushes in different colors.

My color is red.

You can only know your color if you use a calculator I made that I could post here.

Most of you now probably have white.

[taigagreen]

I´m sitting in northern Norway and digging the heck out of this thread!

Not many 3.0 engines in Norway, but lots of 2.5s. As soon as I get my hands on a Subaru engine (hard to find in decent condition) it will go in one of my syncros!

What kind of mpg do you expect from this conversion?
_________________
88 Westfalia Club Joker syncro AAZ i/c
99 Transporter syncro 2.5 TDi

[syncrodoka]

So what gear ratios do the colored "toothbrushes" go with? 4.86 is white but what about other ratios? I have 2 different syncros going to 2 different ratios soon 5.43 and 5.83.
I guess I need to look over the calc. you mentioned. I also need to know if they are still available from VW or a different source.

[derekdrew]

THE SPEEDOMETER GEAR CALCULATOR

The speedometer gears in the front differential for syncro are not related to final drive ratio in the absence of knowing the revolutions per mile (or revolutions per kilometer) of the tire chosen. So, it is neccessary first to fix your final drive ratio and tire size, and then you can choose the correct front differential gears for your speedometer.

There are websites relating the speedo gear to the three letter code of the transmission going around, but these translators should generally not be used because they don't know the tire size. Only the calculator below takes the tire size into account.

TRANSLATION WORK STILL TO DO ON THE CALCULATOR

A critical body of work needs to be undertaken, which is to translate this work into a form that can be used by people in the metric universe, and make the calculator flexible as to inputs and outputs so that Kilometers instead of miles can be used. It also needs to be checked that the result of this is accurate with Kilometer-based vehicles.

I will leave the translation work to Canadians among you or Europeans or somebody else to pick up the mantle and carry it forward a little further in this respect.

Finally, we can then get it translated into German if they don't already have their own version of this.

The calculator will make a US spec syncro with readout in miles per hour accurate. As you all know, the speedometer is not accurate when the vehicle was originally issued with the stock factory tire sizes, reading about 3.5mph fast as I recall.

Translation into KM would likely be accurate if the KM speedometers also read about the same percentage fast when using the same tire size.

If the original german vehicles were made with a highly accurate speedometer, then the calculator would need to be adjusted to allow for that. Canadian viewers may also be able to comment on how much error there was with OEM 205 size tires when reading a Kilometer type speedo.

Aside from using this method of changing the gears inside the front differential, it should be possible to change the little plastic gears inside the speedometer itself, but I don't know how to do that.

SPEEDO GEAR CALCULATION

The results of the work below will be accurate for vehicles with USA mph syncro speedometers.

First, find out the manufacturer's "revolutions per mile" or "revolutions per kilometer" number, and then convert that number into "revolutions per mile". Then proceed with the calculations below. Do not use a revolutions per mile number which is calculated based on tire diameter or tire height as this number will be wrong. Instead, use a revolutions per mile number which is provided from the tire manufacturer (or revolutions per KM) at a particular miles per hour (or revolutions per kilometer). You will know you have a good number if they say, "This tire has 999 revolutions per Kilometer when traveling at an average speed of 50 kilometers per hour." or something similar to that.

The speedometer gears for Syncro embedded inside your front differential, which are like a mini ring and pinion, look like this:

The metal ring in the gears in the picture link above have eight splines and the red plastic gear on a spindle has 21 splines. Thus, we would say that this is a 8/21 speedometer gearset. Our vehicles from North America normally have 8/19 gearsets. Many gearsets were issued from the factory. South African gearsets are normally 8/21.

All pinionlet gears start with part number "094 409 181" and then with a letter suffix B through J.

All ring gears start with part number "094 409 417" with a letter suffix A for 8 teeth, B for 9 teeth, and C for 7 teeth.

The map to the available gears as far as I am aware is this:

094409181B 8/19 WHITE (standard for all North America, all of which were 4.86)
094409181C 8/20 BLACK
094409181D 8/21 RED (standard for all South Africa, all of which were 5.43) ALSO MAY BE GREY???
094409181E 9/20
094409181F 9/21 GREY (medium to light grey)
094409181G 9/22
094409181H 7/19 Dark BROWN
094409181J 8/18 Beige/Brown (color of wood)

The part numbers above are followed by the ratio such as "8/19" but only the second number, the "19" in this instance, refers to the number of teeth on that part. The first number, in this case the "8", refers to the ring gear that is required to be matched with that pinionlet part for the assembly to work correctly.

HOW TO PICK DIFFERENTIAL RINGLETS AND PINIONLETS FOR DUMMIES

Next, calculate the following 15 numbers, replacing the number 6.17 below with the final drive ratio you plan to use (if it is not 6.17) and replacing the number "680" below with the revolutions per mile number that you obtained from the manufacturer for your desired tire size.



8/19:
Calculate: 680 x 6.17 x 0.421 = xxxx (B)


8/20:
Calculate: 680 x 6.17 x 0.400 = xxxx (C)


8/21:
Calculate: 680 x 6.17 x 0.380 = xxxx (D)


9/20:
Calculate: 680 x 6.17 x 0.450 = xxxx (E)


9/21:
Calculate: 680 x 6.17 x 0.429 = xxxx (F)


9/22:
Calculate: 680 x 6.17 x 0.409 = xxxx (G)


7/19:
Calculate: 680 x 6.17 x 0.368 = xxxx (H)


8/18:
Calculate: 680 x 6.17 x 0.444 = xxxx (J)



At the conclusion of the exercise above, you will now have 8 numbers associated with each of the 8 ratios above. You will probably have used Excel to make the calculation just to make it easier.

What you do next, is compare those 8 number results above (represented above as xxxx but replaced with the results of your calculation) to the magic number above that we know to result in a highly accurate speedometer, which is 1596 (for USA certainly, and maybe also elsewhere in the world), and, and see which of the listed ratios comes closest to that.

It took a lot of work to come up with this 1596 figure. You are not going to get that number from VW or any documentation.

After you have picked your number close to 1596, you can then look over to the right to see what ratio of ringlets and pinionlets correspond to your number. The letter suffix (B to J) is the suffix for the part number that matches the ratio you need.

Example, your number closest to 1956 in the xxxx area above is, say, a result in the (G) row corresponding to 9/22. You can then get your gear by ordering 094 409 181G. Note that in such a case, you would also have to order a ring gear with 9 teeth since USA ring gears have 8 teeth. Everyone else with an outcome with an 8 tooth gear can leave their ring gear in place.

If a gearset says 9/22, this means it has 22 teeth on the pinion gear and 9 teeth on the ring gear. You cannot use speedometer pinionlet gears intended identified as 7/19 with an 8 or 9 tooth ring gear..... it would have to be used with a 7 tooth ring gear.

Changing the ring gear is a pain, but changing the toothbrush (the pinion gearlet) is so simple I'd imagine it could be done without removing the differential from the vehicle. You just have to knock a roll pin out to take it out.

HOW THEY GO BAD

Generally, the ring gears go bad if the front differential overheats so much that the plastic melts. At that point, the gears jam and then the speedometer cable breaks the drive end of the pinion gear off, as happend to this USA ring gear from a differential with a bad VC that overheated the diff:

SPEEDOMETER GEAR EXCHANGE

I am looking to acquire bright red colored toothbrushes. These are part number 094409181D 8/21 RED so if you have one of those lying around, let me know.

It looks like you can order the following two ratios from Bus Depot for $200 each:

094409181B 8/19 WHITE
094409181J 8/18 Beige/Brown (color of wood)

While the pinion gears are listed as costing $205, I think the figure $120 is more of a standard number to use when cash is a medium instead of exchange (for new gears).

I can trade or sell brand new OEM pinionlet gears that I have around here to anyone who needs them as follows:

2 x 094409181C 8/20 BLACK
2 x 094409181F 9/21 GREY (medium to light grey)
2 x 094409181H 7/19 Dark BROWN
2 x 094409181J 8/18 Beige/Brown (color of wood)

In fact, this thread could turn into the grear speedo gear exchange if we have enough participants from overseas... people could post speedo gears they no longer need and ratios they are trying to acquire.

[OhChit]

Hey Great work..
I remember you Guys.. Didn't you buy a set of my Porsche Widebody Custom Wheels from me at Atco VW swap meet last Spring. You were going to run them on one of your Vanagons... Got any Pics?
_________________
Fast Cars, and Slow Women Makes me DrooL.

[Wolfgang16]

Derek: thanks for listing the colors. I always asked myself about the color code but I couldn't it figure out.

Speedometer:
In metric units the math is very simple. Suppose you have a syncro16 TD with 6.167 R&P and a 7/19 speedometer gear, then calculate:

6.167*7/19 = 2.272 m

What you get is the rolling circumference in m of the tire which matches your gears. This means if you mount tires with 2272mm circumference, then the km counter in your speedometer will be exact! However the speedometer itself will still show a little bit (about 5km/h) more speed than you really drive. The standard 205 R 16 has about 2245mm, so the km counter is a bit faster; a 245/75 R 16 has 2360mm, this is too big, therefore you have to change the gears.

The math is simple because the metric km counter needs 1000 input turns for 1 km. This number 1000 is written in the lower part of the speedometer.

Those "magic numbers" arise from the conversion to non-metric units.


EDIT: I have made a table with all available gearsets (from the factory):

http://home.mnet-online.de/wonic/rtips.htm#getriebetabelle

Look in the column "Umfg" Here you find all the available circumferences (in mm). Choose one which is closest to yours. (According to German laws you would have to choose one which is bigger than your actual circumference.) At the left side you find then the gearset which matches your tires. In the column "VA KB" you find the letter codes of the front gearboxes containing these gearsets. NOTE: from the letter code you cannot decide which mini pinion is inside.

Of course you can extend this to gearset combinations which were not available from the factory.
_________________
Wolfgang

T3 syncro16 `89 TDI AFN, DPF, Papmahl intercooler, Seikel springs, 31x10.50R15 on T4 rims

syncro in Central Asia 2009

[syncrodoka]

Thanks for the speedo drive gear info.
I been looking for this info for some time and it just isn't around online. People often talk about the colors but nobody will tell you what they mean or how to figure out which one you need.
Syncrospares shows a picture of a red speedometer drive gear in their used parts section on their site.

[Jon_slider]

Interesting math Derek, thanks!

Fwiw, a 4.86 ring and pinion cannot be brought within 1% of accurate with any tire larger than 720 rotations, no matter which speedo gears you use.

Also note, No Change to 8/19 speedo gear required if you pair a 5.43 R&P to a 705 rotation tire.. It is within 1% of accurate.

personally, I cant see my two Vanagon's speedos anyway, the steering wheel blocks it.. so I use a GPS as my speedometer.. Also, none of my 3 vehicles have accurate speedos due to tire changes.. but the GPS works with all of them..

[ALIKA T3]

I could have sworn I saw these gear speedo stuff in Germany,Nottermotorsport,but can't find it anymore.....it was 2 weeks ago.

Bye!

[derekdrew]

VW/SDP Documented Provision For 30+ Inch Tires for Syncro
===================================

If you look closely at the chart that Wolfgang links to, he points out that VW, in its official documentation, relates the use of 7.00R16 tires to certain speedometer gear ratios.

In so doing, there is clear evidence that the factory envisioned users would install tires of approximately 30.5" diameter.

So, for those of you who are wondering if going with tires in the 30" class is somehow radical, the answer is no, VW envisioned it all along.

"Go big young man! You won't be sorry!"

=====================
Correction
=====================

In the gear calculator above, I edited one of the magic numbers from mistaken 1956 to the correct 1596 given twice earlier, so if you printed out the old page with the calculator or saved it to your hard drive, you'll have to correct it there too.

[derekdrew]

The Subaru H6 3.0L engine starts. It was so quiet, I could almost imagine sleeping on top of there with the A/C goiing all night in the deep south in summertime.

The bolt is a little wobbly, proving that it isn't glued on.

I have no idea whether the bolt would be this calm on any well designed modern engine or only on this one, so if you take a video of your engine running with a bolt on a curvy surface and post it here we could see.

After the last outpouring of tie rod and ball joint photos I am expecting an avalanche of videos of all your engines with bolts sitting on top of them.

We have to send out angle gagues before we do more ball joint pics though because its hard to compare without the actual numerical angle in degrees. The Lemforder tie rod ends looked pretty good to me.


Link