Wondering about transmission recommendation for 2332

[Stripped66]

[vwracerdave]

Back in the 50's & early 60's VW uses a 36 & 40 HP engine. The transaxles were built to handle these power levels. Later VW's were 50-60 HP. You are wanting to build a 200 HP engine that is 3 1/2 time more powerful than the 60 HP engine the transaxle in your '71 was designed to use. If you built an engine 4 times more powerful in a GM (800-900 HP) you would have to upgrade the drive train just as much. Where you got lost in this thread was people throwing drag racing (with slicks) into a street driven car. Controlling wheel hop and drag race starts is what kills VW transaxles along with using too strong a clutch & PP.

To build a stronger VW transaxle you use parts from a Bug, Bus, and Type III and Frankenstein them together. When you are starting with 50 year old parts, you may need 3-4 core transaxles to get enough parts to build one solid transaxle

You can rebuild a GM Powerglide with basic hand tools. It takes about $1000 of special tools and jigs to rebuild a VW transaxle and many of the special tools are no longer available.

The weak link in a VW transaxle is the 6 3/8" ring & pinion gear and the spider & trunion gears in the differential. A Ford has an 8.8" or 9" R&P and were used in a 5000 Lb. 1/2 ton pick-up truck.

As far as your engine goes, decide what you want and build it the first time. It is a foolish waste of money to keep upgrading & improving in stages. 160-170 HP can be very enjoyable and live 60K miles in a street driven VW. That's close to 3 times the original power. You will also have to upgrade the stock drum brakes safely stop 3X more HP.
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2017 Street Comp Champion - Thunder Valley Raceway Park - Noble, OK
2010 Sportsman ET Champion - Mid-America Dragway - Arkansas City, KS
1997 Sportsman ET Champion - Thunder Valley Raceway Park - Noble ,OK

[nsracing]

The weakest link IMO is the keyed mainshaft in early trans. These have issues shearing off the keys on the 3rd/4th. I realize they offer HD keys but nothing like splined. ok?

Hence, most here tell you to go w/ the splined mains 3rd/4th, me included. Splined mainshafts came as early as 71-72 in Ghia, if Im not mistaken. Then came the 3.88 Ring/Pinion 9-tooth >the strongest we have ever had from the factory.

You have a choice of main tunnels to choose from, depending on what you want.

Gears are all over the place to what you want if you decide to go close-ratio. Welding or no-welding is up to you. It costs money the more the work.

Since you have decided to buy the kit, my last advice to you is to MAKE SURE the flywheel you get is NOt some cast iron Chinese shit -these will not hold up. ONly get the premium vanadium or chomoly steel flyweels.

Im out.

[Casting Timmy]

Trivia...the only 10 tooth mainshaft (3.80 first) with splines was a 71 bus. In 72 the bus got the 9 tooth (3.7 first added as well, then late 72 (some call it 73) everything had the stronger first gear with only 9 teeth with the stronger splines for the 3-4 hub.

If I remember right it was Nov of 72 for the T1's.....but history has shown the factory didn't throw stuff away. They would have used up all the 10tooth shafts before going to the 9 tooth shafts.

6V swings have weaker idlers on 1st and 2nd, the later 1st gear idler is noticeably thicker and therefore stronger. I don't know if the weaker 3.80 first gear shafts have a difference in strength between the nut version and the clip version.

The 002 main shaft and 1st gear idler are a little thinner than the 091....but you can put an 091 idler with the 002 main shaft fi you do another mod or two.

[mark tucker]

all those numbers get me confuzed

[esde]

[raul arrese]

[RVAmike97]

[slalombuggy]

[mark tucker]

I have the 89 4th, 70 no issue execpt for lower speedlimit......for the 82 I would want a 5 spd...or 6 6spd automatic would be my choice if I had money fling out of my ass....money not monkey!!!

[TinCanFab]

When I swapped my 2 liter from my lowered Beetle to my mostly stock single cab pickup, it made a world of difference in the way I could use the truck. BUT, other than having gas shocks, nothing else was modified suspension wise to drive this engine the way I used to in the Bug.

A couple months ago, I was driving the truck a little harder than usual but not racing it or popping the clutch. I had severe wheel hop out of nowhere and it was pretty violent. I'm never going to do that again!

I just want to emphasize what Scott said and look at the pics slalombuggy posted. My Bug has similair mods to the frame horns, so when I would rip through gears I never could not get the wheels to hop at all. The mod worked so well that I totally forgot about wheel hop because I was spoiled in the way I used to be able to thrash on the engine. When the trans is out just do yourself a favor and do what you must to beef up those frame horns.
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Check out my truck brought back from the dead... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=420762&highlight=sprayed+blood

They're never really ever finished 58 rag build...
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=658092

[theDrew]

[RVAmike97]

[turbotype1]

You want to eliminate wheel hop…. It will kill a tranny in no time.
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[slalombuggy]

I used 2" .095 wall tubing that I trimmed to fit the frame horns and welded it between the splice plate for the torsion raise and the forks. Were I to do it again I would probably fill in the gap left at the front, but that would only be for asthetics.

Even if you don't have a cage in your car you could run horn stiffeners up into the body. The rear corners of the parcel tray are probably one of the strongest points on the car and you could tie a solid rear mount into plates bolted into the corners, such as in the picture below, but without the cage. Easy to hide under carpet.

brad

[RVAmike97]

[modok]

[esde]

Ray Vallero apparently used these rabbit ear braces to tie the rear wall to the upper engine mount bolts. No doubt this isn't exactly how it bolts up to the engine..
I stole the pic from Dawn's thread here
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0
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modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[slalombuggy]

[vwracerdave]