4WD Conversion begins!

[Original Manx]

nah looked at all that. Frankly it's a pain to make custom mounts, the more factory parts that can be used, the better.
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Reversed gears for Subaru Transmissions
Fit a 5 speed to your rear engined car
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[JWDW]

anything new happen latelt? did you build the new front spindles? did you get the steering figured out?

[Original Manx]

I'm afraid not a lot has happened, not been very motivated.
Got to work out a mount for the diff nose and that's sort of stuck me - however tomorrow is a buggy day and I'll probably solve that one by getting another tranny mount and modifying it. I need to keep enough room under the diff mount to run the 3 x EFI lines to the back.

Decided not to build new spindles for now, will see how the current hub setup goes and will probably change the VW balljoint I used (upper) to a lower as they have a shorter shaft, getting the arms together a few more inches.

Got the invoice for the completed reverse-cut gears....I think that's taken the wind out of my sails a bit.....got to wait for some more cashola.
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Reversed gears for Subaru Transmissions
Fit a 5 speed to your rear engined car
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[Original Manx]

Actually, when I think about it, a bit more has happened. It's just that they are parts not yet bolted to the buggy, so it doesn't seem like progress sometimes.

Got my 18" wheels all repaired. They took all the dings out of the outer rims and got them true, machined all the lips to get rid of the kerb rash and polished the entire wheels. They look awesome. Fitted one up to the front with a 235/40/18 tyre and it 'just' hits the edge of the top shock mount. Could grind a bit off I guess but it's been TIG welded. I will be going for a 215/35/18 tyre on the front instead. This is basically what most Subaru WRX's use (ET 45) so I guess I'm in the right zone there.

Also got some rear hubs for the IRS to convert it to disk brake. A shop here in AUS makes em and they have drilled the 5 x 120 pcd stud holes in em for me. Now just waiting for the discs to arrive, which will be a sandwich fit on the hub, held on by the wheel once it's bolted on the studs.

Also got some Nissan R31 rear brake calipers and mounts for the back. These are a floating caliper with cable handbrake connection. Once everything is fitted up correctly and clears wheels/shocks etc then they will get a clean and hi temp paint I think, or get sent off to the polishers.

So all in all.....there has been a fair bit of behind-the-scenes work.
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Reversed gears for Subaru Transmissions
Fit a 5 speed to your rear engined car
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[ernie norley]

Gday been looking at your dilemma with front diff you may be able to cut a section out underneath the tunnel and reinforce the edge then mount diff on a small xmember using a vw gearbox mount of the bellhousing with the ends turned down to line up with either pair of bolt holes on the diff housing or similar style mount off a toyota box dont give up it will all fall into place when you least expect it to I have been doing conversions from the age of 15 and at 60 still come up against odd things that piss me of only to find it was looking me in the eye

[Original Manx]

Thanks for your comments Ernie. Ive done exactly what you suggested previously, used a commodore gearbox mount. Some modifications to make it bolt on the diff nose upside down and then drill two holes throught the bottom of the pan to bolt it in. Will post some build photos once it's done.

In the meantime I attacked the diff cover as it's now upside down. The breather needed to be relocate to the other side so I milled a section flat, drilled and glued the breather into place:

The fill and drain plugs are very close to the front beam, could have some interference if the diff moves a bit. They protrude quite a way from the front case so i milled them down flat :

That's all for now folks.....
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Reversed gears for Subaru Transmissions
Fit a 5 speed to your rear engined car
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[JWDW]

[Original Manx]

Hey JWDW the invoice was for $10,000 USD for 2 sets. I've already paid the development R & D costs in advance which covered off making our own pancake forgings for these gears and setting up and testing the hypoid angles and cutting tools. The $10,000 is a pure manufacturing cost to me and includes forging the material, cutting the gears, heat treating and final grinding.

I don't have the gears yet, they are clearing customs this week so will be able to show everyone pictures of them and show them in the gearbox probably over the weekend.

I will have one set available for sale $5,000 USD if anyone's interested in purchasing this first set immediately. Remember these can be used for 4wd or 2wd gearboxes. I also have a spare Subaru 4 bolt gearbox here to build it into, out of a Liberty RS turbo which has 50/50 centre diff.

I will build one set into my 4wd gearbox but it may be a few months until my buggy is up and running to be able to test how strong these are.

If someone doesn't get the second set off me in a few weeks, then I will likely build it into a nice short 2wd gearbox and offer it as a test replacement for someone that's got a high powered beetle. This will prove it's worth behind some of those WRX powered beetles and possibly open up a market.

If there's enough interest I will likely offer the gearsets commercially.
_________________
Reversed gears for Subaru Transmissions
Fit a 5 speed to your rear engined car
www.subarugears.com

[ernie norley]

Good to hear about mount solving will keep following your progress the market will be there just like in the movie build it & they will come I think you are on the way to solving the biggest draw back in the syncro's so keep up the effort it will all be worth it
Ernie

[Original Manx]

Solved the gearbox nose mount issue, thought I'd show how it was done.
This is the view in from the front of the pan, through the napoleon's hat. You can see where I've placed the mount to see if everything fits.

I've ground away the top half of the diff nose mount. A bolt and nut usually go through this but I"ll run a tap through it so a 14mm bolt screws into the bottom half. So this is looking down the nose of the diff, you can see the round shape of the diff now, so it fits through the tunnel nicely. (this will probably mean that I can weld the tunnel up again completely, holding the rounded shape)

Side view through the tunnel (where the pedals/access cover usually go). Amazingly, the mount lines up exactly here, giving access to the bolts into the diff mounting lugs. The force of the diff under load will push down on this mount so it's perfectly suited.

Looking through the tunnel now with the diff in place. The original vw bracket for all the pipes is still in place, have to see if this can remain.

_________________
Reversed gears for Subaru Transmissions
Fit a 5 speed to your rear engined car
www.subarugears.com

[ernie norley]

Good stuff all coming together now Are going to be able to do bolts for shaft up in the hole thats there good to see photos lot easier to follow all down hill now Are you goin to mount the shifter & linkage along the top of the tunnel thats the next quandry
Ernie

[Original Manx]

Dunno Ernie, that's the next dilemma. Might need an access hole do do the driveshaft bolts up.

I will most likely run a cable shifter system for the shifter, you see I have to get the shifter to run in reverse, otherwise it's R,5,4,3,2,1. Cable shift makes it easy to reverse everything and is very compact. Can prob still fit it in the tunnel and keep it all away from the drive shaft.
_________________
Reversed gears for Subaru Transmissions
Fit a 5 speed to your rear engined car
www.subarugears.com

[ernie norley]

Morning Maybe look at the shifter out of a late model hiaces I think their cable type and a 5speed this may help out
Ernie

[Original Manx]

Well everyone, it's finally arrived! Two years since I started this project and the gears arrived today. They look very very well made, I'm looking forward to putting some serious horsepower through them!

The pictures below show the new crownwheel and pinion above the original Subaru crownwheel and pinion:

So confirming, this enables you to 'flip the diff' in a Subaru transaxle. The casing must be clearanced for the crownwheel bolts on the flip side of the case as I outlined in earlier posts.
_________________
Reversed gears for Subaru Transmissions
Fit a 5 speed to your rear engined car
www.subarugears.com

[kombicol]

Nice. Really Nice.
The suby kombi guys are going to love this.

[BugMan114]

Holy shit . $10K for two sets of gears

i don't think ill have that much in my entire baja build when i'm done

Man i love following "rich people build threads". yall do some crazy stuf, which make me question my own sanity, bravo sir . . keep the build porn commin
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1974 Super Beetle: Custom resto in progress
1972 Super Beetle: Daily Driver
1971 Std. Beetle w/ 1929 Mercedes Benz Gazelle kit
1960 Baja Bug
1969 Baja Bug
Sand Rail- Homemade
Sand Rail- FUBAR

Aircooled Airheads

Why the hell do they call it a gland nut. its obviously a big fat bolt!!!

[ernie norley]

afternoon Gears look great its all coming together now have you compared the slines on the CV drive shafts dont suppose you would be that lucky I reckon there will be a influx of enquiries from synchro guys now that you have done all the hard shit this has got to go off once they sort out the ratios or how to couple up the suby diff in the front the best thing is that they will find it easier to configuer the wiring I spent 3 solid 10 hour days doing the wiring on the mates syncro because he only got the motor and a hacked up harness we had to put a VDO speed sensor in the kombi cable to stop it going into limp mode The thing is still having issues in the computor Have fitted the reading plug so hope to find someone to plug & play for him What is the diff ratio your using. Good to see I have been of some help to you hope to see you at a vw event somtime soon
Ernie

[kombicol]

I am thinking one of these 2WD boxes in the back of my EJ25 powered bay would be pretty hot.

Suppose you only wanted to build 2WD boxes and didn't need to get the gear meshing pattern exactly the same as the DANA/subaru hypoid, what do you think you could have got a set cut for locally?

[Original Manx]

Combicol what you're suggesting is impossible as far as I can tell.
To use a diff in that transaxle that is not offset hypoid i.e. one of your standard dana diff dentres or something you have to move the location of the diff centre up so the pinion is in the sentre of the crownwheel. This means machining and welding the sides of the case. You'd lose a lot of strength. Then you also have to cut off the pinion gear and key a new one on and weld/machine. I'd say even harder and more expensive than the reverse-cut solution.

Time to start saving....!!!
_________________
Reversed gears for Subaru Transmissions
Fit a 5 speed to your rear engined car
www.subarugears.com

[ernie norley]

g_day hows it been have you got anymore done or run out of puff before chrissy hope you have a good xmas & all the best for the new year will be watching for progress soon
Ernie