1963 IRS Setup with EJ25T Subarugears and Rear Mendeola

[gilbertofx]

Here’s my project. It’s a 1963 with a Subarugears tranny coupled to a STi EJ257. It is mounted on a 1963 pan, so it was converted from swingaxle to IRS. This is being done in Humacao Puerto Rico! Thanks to all of you that have posted your suby conversions, it makes it easier to do this. Now here’s some of the stuff that I’ve been doing. I’ll be glad to provide help to any of you!

In order to fit the big guy, the engine was moved about 3.5 inches into the car in order to clear the factory deck lid, even with the DOHC heads. It will look like factory from the outside, the “sleeper look”. In order to achieve this, the frame horns were cut 3.5 inches and the torsion bar tube was cut. In order to strengthen the rear, it was all triangulated with 1/5-8” chrome molly tubes. A light weight solution and now the rear is rock solid. I can jump on the engine and there will be no movement in the frame horns.

– Subarugears tranny in stock location

- Torsion tube was cut and tranny was slid foward about 3.5 inches. I also wanted to move it as much as possible in order to move the center of gravity forward.

– Rear chrome molly support. Note also that 1985.5 Porsche 944 Aluminum arms were placed.

- EJ25 DOHC at original location (per subarugears engine mount drawing)

- Framehorns were trimmed

– End result. Engine now 100% under the decklid.

- Look at all the space I have!!! There’s almost about ½” of space between the Timing belt cover and the apron.

Now going to the wheels, I once saw a beetle with 18” Porsche Sport Design wheels and that is the look and stance I’m after (grey beetle below). These wheels come in the Porsche GT3 RS (staggerd 9” front / 11” back) and in a Boxter S (7” front / 9” back). I was lucky and found a good set on ebay. Once the wheels were placed on my beetle, the wheels looked awesome. The only problem is that it protrudes about 2.5 inches in the rear wings.
– stance I’m after.

– Wheels in my beetle.

I wanted to place them under the rear wing as much as possible, so that meant that the aluminum 944 training arms had to be swapped for the stock beetle ones. Below is some measurements I made using the spring plate and hub as a reference. The Al 944 arms had an offset of about 8 inches. The beetle with 944 back plate was 7-3/16”. That means the increase between the two is ~0.812 or 20mm. I know that there’s a lot of info regarding the offsets, but I never found a graphical comparison between the two, so here it is:

- Al 944 – this is the early aluminum offset arms.

– stock beetle arm with porsche 944 back plate

I placed the wheels again with the decreased offset and here’s the result:
now I have about 3/4” more to go. That means that if I go with the narrowed rear mendeola rear suspension (True Track IRS), I may be able to make the 9 inch wheel fit under the wing. From what I saw, I will have to trim down the factory chassis bump stop.

Now I need some help from the folks at Mendeola. I plan to do with the front suspension and now the rear IRS setup. In order to achieve this, I have some questions. Since I moved the engine and tranny to the front, the axle shafts are at a slight angle (a la Ricola beetle). I’m able to make it work with the stock torsion bar and shock, but what is the point of having a double A-arm in the front ant stock in the back? So let’s go the whole 9 yards. I have to do this before I get married! Haha!

What I need to know from Kevin @mendeola is if the rear axle will not hit the coilover spring (for my setup). I have taken some measurements in my beetle (provided in pictures below). From what I’ve seen from other posts, it looks like the lower coilover shock mounting point has been moved towards the trailing arm axle stub. Kevin, is it moved relative to the factory beetle mounting point? What is the maximum “forward” cv axle angle that the rear mendeola setup could handle when suspension is fully compressed without scraping the spring? If the axle stub is used as a reference, my subaru axle stubs are moved forward 2.5 inches (from beetle axle stub center to subaru stub center). Will I have any problems? I placed the question here instead of sending an email for the benefit of all of us .

- Picture from Mendeola

– Full relaxed suspension. It has a 1-3/4 inch gap between the axle and shock. That means that the relative movement of the axle is about 1 inch when relaxed and fully compressed.

– Fully compressed suspension. It has a ¾” gap between the axle and shock.

- Placed a wood stick perpendicular to the arm axle stub in order to take the subaflange distance measurement.

– The subaflange is 2.5 inches towards the front when measured from the axle centerline.

[Jcr. Kat]

If thats the look you want you should have installed wider fenders like the car in the picture.

[Jcr. Kat]

If thats the look you want you should have installed wider fenders like the car in the picture.

[Anthonyisawsome]

Looking good. Going to be fun as hell when its done.

[gilbertofx]

[Jcr. Kat]

Are you going to run fiberglass fenders or youyoun going to widen those stock fenders?

[coolrydes]

We just did almost exactly what your doing, by shortening the frame horns. everything will clear our narrowed or stock rear arms.
_________________
Kevin "Coolrydes" Zagar

COOLRYDES So-Cal CUSTOMS
MENDEOLA SUSPENSION
THE HOME OF STYLE AND PERFORMANCE
www.CoolRydescustoms.com

[gilbertofx]

[gilbertofx]

[wildman1]

Progress?