Axle length

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[Fubawu]

I'm a bit confused here.

I have a 66 and believe that I have 67-68 swing axles. As the hub/bearing carrier seems to be slightly wider than stock. Is it possible to change only the bearing housing to the proper 66 and earlier? I believe this is the difference in length no? If this is done will the axle spline still work or will it be too long?

[EVfun]

[Fubawu]

I figured as much..thanks for the confirmation.

[65stroker]

So I have a '68 (long axles, long splines, extended snouts on drums) and I'm about to upgrade to rear discs. I bought the rear disc brake kit for a 58-67 along with spacers and now I realize my EMPI Fuchs won't take the rear center caps because of the longer splines and spacer.

What are my options?

1. Can I convert to shorter pre '67 tubes, axles, bearings, and cap?

2. Or would '67 axles (If found) work with the '68 setup as is and give me some room for the center cap?

[65stroker]

I know I brought this back form the dead... Anyone able to provide some wisdom on this?

[EVfun]

You can put '67 axles in '68 tubes. You cannot put short axles ('66 down) in the tubes. You might look into longer caps -- that would be a LOT easier that removing the transaxle to swap axles.
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[nize]

Ok so I need some advice...
I need to do a long to short axle conversion swap on my ghia. If I search on the forums there seems to be a fact that you need 60-66 short axles. Why is this? Cant I use earlier drive shafts from a split case beetle or isnt that going to work?
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----------(VW)----------
1954 Kombi
1957 lowlight ghia coupe
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[EVfun]

[esde]

[EVfun]

Esde brings up a really good point. There are 4 different swing axle bearing caps and 3 different axle tube end shapes to go with them.

1. Early 1958 model year and older. The axle tubes and caps have to be kept together because machined differences in the large O-ring fitment won’t interchange with later parts. Also, they were designed to work with slightly thinner backing plates. Some people have reported leakage when used with later backing plates.

2. 1958 through 1964. These were designed to work with an oil slinger, like earlier rear axles tubes and caps. They are often used without one because for many years the slinger was not available new and most replacement rear brakes drums were not drilled to accept it.

3. 1965 through 1967. These functionally interchange with the previous design but switched to having the axle seal leak deflector built into the bearing cap. Older brake backing plates need a hole or slot added to allow this system to work. This is the first version to use a paper gasket behind the bearing cap, to seal this new oil leakage drain.

4. 1968 only on US sold Bugs. This system was used on later swingaxle Bugs sold in other parts of the world. The difference I notice is that the amount of the axle bearing that is in the axle tube and the amount in the cap was changed. This retained the oil slinger in the bearing cap design, so they look a lot like the 1965-1967 parts.

5. IRS bearing caps are different than swingaxle caps. They do not have the built in oil slinger.
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[Ovally]

[nize]

Thanks for clearing things up. I will try to go ahead and use my split case axles then.
_________________
----------(VW)----------
1954 Kombi
1957 lowlight ghia coupe
--------------------------