In planning my transmission build I wanted to make a gearbox that would be strong enough to handle the added horsepower that I expected the new engine to make, and be geared to allow highway cruising. I started with a late-model I.R.S. Type 1 transmission and came up with a gearstack that is a blend of early and late OEM VW gears. I assembled the gearbox myself, but my friend Prescott Phillips helped me tremendously by setting the Ring & Pinion backlash.
Here are the specs of the new gearbox:
Type 1 Beetle Transmission
1st gear 3.80
2nd gear2.06
3rd gear 1.32, welded syncro, HD keyway
4th gear .89 splined w/welded syncro
Ring & Pinion 4.125
Weddle I.R.S. Super-Diff, with four 10-tooth spider gears
Dual HD Alminum I.R.S. Side Covers
Modifed Gene Berg GB643 Front Yoke Mount
Mobil 1 synthetic Gear Oil
1963 Volkswagen Type 2
Single Cab Transporter
Here's a shot of the Single Cab when it arrived from California. It was a cold March afternoon in Batavia, IL (2000). In this shot my oldest son Brent is making sure everything is being handled appropriately.
This shot was taken minutes after the truck was unloaded. My two sons, Brent and Curtis, were as excited as I was at finally seeing the Single Cab. This was my first drive in a Type 2.
Bumper Restoration
Soon after parking the truck I began to do something I had wanted to do for a couple of years - restore my bumpers and add American spec overriders. The bumpers were in decent shape, but they did have some body filler on them in some places. I managed to locate some American spec overriders on eBay a couple of years prior and finally began to work on them. After a few weekends of pounding and straightening, I had the front bumber ready for paint.
This shot shows my now straight bumper blade with its first coat of Chevy Truck White.
Here's the completed bumper. Its difficult to see, but I added bumper steps, which are fashioned after the famous Empi steps of the 60's. I may add my 4" fog lights at some point, but for now its just the bumper.
A very cool shot an early Single Cab. I wish I could provide the photo credit, but I only know that it was a shot on the Samba from a few years ago. No idea who the guy is. Just thought it was a neat shot of a Single Cab.
Drivetrain Upgrades:
Part of my plans include improving the truck's gearing to allow me to travel at higher speeds. Up here in Wisconsin there are mostly highways and country roads that require average speeds of 55 mph or higher. In addition, all of the ACVW events in Wisconsin require me to travel long distance. My plans include a larger engine with significantly more horsepower than stock. With more horsepower to push the truck I won't need the older reduction box transaxle with its super low gearing. I have replaced the swing axle transmission/reduction box set up with a more up-to-date IRS suspension and transmission. I accomplished this conversion using a Wolfgang International I.R.S. Conversion kit.
The Wolfgang conversion kit comes complete with new torsion bar spring plates, swing arm brackets, special axles and new shock mounts. The parts are finished in a durable black finish.
To complete the conversion you need to aquire other parts including the swing arms and transmission.
Finally, to complete the conversion I located a set of Type 2 Thing axle stubs and inner CV cups. These will allow me to run the stronger Type 2 CV Joint on my new axles.
The advantage of running the Type 2 CV over the more commonly used Type 1 CV is that I will be able to set the suspension at the stock height, run more horsepower and not break CV joints.
I located and purchased some swing arms to complete the suspension. They are late-model Type 1 IRS swing arms but I could have used late model Type 3 arms or even Porsche 944 arms. These particular units are from a 1972 Super Beetle.
Ported/Polished 40x35.5 "D" Port Cylinder Heads, reworked by Jeff Denham
10.4 to 1 compression
Berg 1 5/8 Merged Exhaust, ceramic coated
Custom 2 1/2" Flowmaster muffler set-up
48 IDF Carbs w/40mm venturies
German Bosch 009 Distributor with Pertronix Ignition
MSD Blaster Coil and 6AL Ignition Box
Engine Build:
As I guess it is with many plans, things are subject to change. My original plan was to build a nice, reliable 69x94 (1915cc) engine. But it wasn't too long before my parts bin changed. I wound up finding a nice set of Italian Weber 48 IDF's. This was followed by an 84mm 4340 chromoly crankshaft. Then I scored a set of 94mm "B" pistons. I was soon well on my way towards a 2332cc engine combo.
So with a new plan, I set off to build a larger, more powerful engine, that could be driven virtually anywhere. The specs for the engine are as follows:
This shot shows the left side installed and awaiting the stub axle assemblies.
The installation of the IRS kit began in December 2006. I began the project by installing the new spring plates. The amount of labor to do this part of the job was easier than I thought it would be. Before I knew it, I had both sides installed and all "buttoned up."
In shot you can see the empty engine and transmission bay. The new IRS spring plates are installed, and are awaiting the swing arm assemblies.
The transmission was removed for repairs and to swap out the swing axle components for IRS parts.
This page was last updated on: September 1, 2009
This shot shows the preliminary installation of the swing arms into the torsion bar housing brackets.
Super Diff
While at the Michigan Buggy Builder's show in March '06 I managed to score this awesome Weddle Engineering IRS Super Diff. It is a complete Super Diff with the stock IRS end gear shafts and 10-tooth spider gears. All I needed to do was install the ring gear and set up the proper backlash measurements.
Brake Drums
In order to make the rear brake drums work with the IRS conversion I had to have the drums machined a little bit.
First, the "snout" of the drums had to becut down 3/4" so that the IRS stub axleswould fit. Now the axle nut has the proper amount of depth on the stub axle threads.
The second bit of machine work was to remove the outer lip of the brake drum so that it fits down into the Beetle backing plate. This essentially matchesa Beetle drum.
Here in this shot you can see the edge of the drum after it was machined flat.
A number of years ago I decided that I wanted a different kind of Volkswagen. I thought a Single Cab would be fun so I started my search. After about six months searching I located and purchased a 1963 Single Cab truck. I had it transported to the midwest and have been enjoying it ever since.
My intial goal was to make the truck a reliable driver with a little extra power. Having accomplished that I turned my attention towards a more complete restoration and a higher performance drivetrain. This webpage will chronicle its progress.
Here are a couple of shots of the two gear stacks assembled into the gear housing. Assembly requires a press and some patience. Note the steel shift forks (supplied by Bruce Tweedle).
After....
It was mid-February 2007 when I had the gearbox together. It was installed soon after.
Cylinder Heads:
I had ported a set of stock-valved heads for my 1641cc engine (pictured way above), and wanted to used them as the basis for my new engine. So I sent them out to Jeff Denham and asked him to install 40x35.5 valves and to "improve them". What I got back was an awesome set of performance street heads. These should produce solid power across the rpm range, and should work well with the FK8 cam and IDF's.
When the original engine plans were revolving around either a 69mm or 74mm crankshaft I had sourced a nice set of 5.400" Scat I-Beam connecting rods. But now with a longer 84mm stroke I felt that I needed a stronger and longer connecting rod. So I sold off the Scat I-Beams and picked up a new set of 5.500" 4340 Chromoly H-Beam connecting rods. They feature ARP 2000 rod bolts.
Clearanced Camshaft:
With the larger 84mm stroke and H-Beam connecting rods I needed to do a little clearancing to the cam. Pictured right is the new Engle FK8 camshaft that I applied some careful grinding to.
Also shown is the steel straight cut cam gear that I'm running.
Engine Assembly:
After completing the case and camshaft clearancing I began assembling what will be the heart of this truck; the engine.
The 2332cc Long Block assembly:
Finally, one late afternoon in August I clicked off this shot of the assembled long block. Progress had been made!!!!
By August 31, 2008 the engine looked like this. A lot of work had taken place along the way that included determining the rocker geometry, ordering a set of Manton pushrods, paint and detail, fuel delivery, etc.
As mentioned above, this engine required a custom made set of .220" thick cylinder spacers. This basically makes the engine about a 1/2" wider than the prior 1641cc engine.
With the added width I detemrined that I would not be able to run my Empi c-channel valve covers pictured above. So I sourced a set of original German OEM valve covers and modified them for my breather set up. The breathers are tightly secured and have nylon washers to eliminate leaks, while being heat resistant. Here's what the finished product looks like:
I struggled a little bit with the rocker geometry right on this engine, and ultimately decided to run a new set of CB Performance 1.4 ratio rocker arm assemblies that I had been saving for my Ghia's race engine. This necessitated the purchase of a newer set for the Ghia's engine.
These rocker assemblies are very nice! They are quality pieces.
Here's a shot of the heads after I set up the rocker shafts up to align properly on the valves.
Here are a couple of pics of the rotating assembly in the case prior to being closed up.
Additional parts included an "Achiever" pulley from CB Performance, a Berg-prepped Schedek 26mm oil pump, an original Berg 3.5 quart sump and custom sump plate, and a custom made set of Cylinder spacers from RIMCO.
The "Achiever" pulley was balanced locally.
The oil pump was modified for a full-flow oil system.
During the build process I decided to remove the stock fuel tank and have it boiled out and restored. I used to struggle with clogged jets and dirty fuel filters so I knew there was probably a rust issue. So I removed the tank and took it to a local Green Bay radiator shop and they did their work! They boiled it out and sealed the tank with a special industrial tank liner. Here's the finished product just before I reinstalled it in the truck:
I had always wanted to properly equip the truck with a spare tire. My truck came with the original bracket and wing nut under the bed area, but I was missing the spare tire hoop. I sourced an original spare tire hoop from someone on the Samba. When it arrived I wasted no time in installing a spare tire.
Driveline Changes:
The original plans were to complete the IRS conversion using the Wolfgang International custom free-floating axles that they supply with the kit. However, when I attempted to bolt in my new axles the angle at the CV joint was too steep and the CV's bound up. I ultimately determined that I had inadvertently set the spring plates one notch too high, and had to re-set them to make the truck level again.
Throughout the time I was exploring the CV angle problem I decided to try an old VW speed trick of converting the standard IRS Axle/CV set up with a 1970's Datsun halfshaft set up. This conversion is pretty simple. It requires two Datsun halfshafts from either a 510 or 240Z/260Z car and a set of four custom-made adapter plates. The adapters will go into the CV cups (in my case, Thing stub axles (outer) and Type 2 cups(inner)). An added benefit that I had not planned on was rotating weight savings. The Datsun halfshafts are much lighter than the full axle/CV set-up. I didn't weigh them, but the difference is signficant.
Here's a shot of my used halfshafts that I picked up by placing a "wanted ad" on a Datsun 510 enthusists website. Also pictured are the four adapters I had custom-made by a local machinist. I'll be replacing the u-joints with some new GEM high performance units and then cleaning them up.
This picture shows a comparison of the combined Wolfgang axle/Type 2 CV set-up next to the Datsun halfshaft (center). For further comparision, both are compared to a stock Type 2 axle from a 1968-70 VW Bus. With the adapters (pictured above) in place the halfshaft will be equal to or longer than the CV/Wolfgang axle set-up.
Halfshafts Installed:
The following pictures show the halfshafts installed with their adapters in the CV cups. I secured them using hardened allen-head cap screws and bolts. The halfshafts feature an adjustible center section that will allow suspension movement without damaging the u-joints.
Over the summer of 2004 my Single Cab developed a problem with its reduction boxes (transmission). I parked the truck and began a long, slow transformation. The plan started our simple enough; upgrade the drivetrain for more power and for easy highway cruising. Work progressed as time and money allowed. The following text and photos walk through the steps I took with my little truck.
Finally in April '09 I completed the rear bumper restoration.
The rear bumper actually required a bit more work than the front did. Its not perfect, but its nice enough for a "driver" and will do fine for me.
"Fire in the hole!!!!"
After what seemed like eternity, we finally put fuel to spark and fired up the new 2332. On a cool weekend evening in October '08 it roared to life. It was nice to hear it finally run.
Through the wonders of YouTube, here's a video that I took using my Nikon CoolPix camera. The audio isn't the best, but it was cool to drive the truck under its own power.
With the engine in, tuned and running good, I finished up the rest of the assembly and cleaned it up for some pictures. Next up, new paint!!!!
It has taken five years to get the truck back on the road. I intend to drive and enjoy the truck often and plan to take it to a couple of car shows during the summer of 2009.
3.80
