Welcome to Eircooled
Our Ethos is simple; We promote, maintain, and encourage the use of classic aircooled vehicles. We run the club in an open, inclusive, and democratic environment. We encourage all members to have an equal say and part to play in the club.
Register

1964 Beetle.

the two big bolts for adjusting the ride height,near the centre of the porsche arms hit off the chassis,so i think i will get rid of the front part of the trailing arm and make up an adjustable link.i will probably use coil-overs instead of the torsion bars.

 
i finally decided what i am going to (try to) do with the gearbox.i got this Quaife limited slip diff for irs gearboxes in the post this morning.flippin expensive,but if it works out,it should be fun!
i'm not expecting it to be easy to fit though..

 
i got some output flanges to fit the bigger 100mm cv joints on the Porsche driveshafts too,but i will need to find at least one more driveshaft,as i only realised the ones i have are different lengths-probably because they came from an automatic?



 
i was kind of lucky that the ring and pinion i had were 8 bolt,so will bolt directly to the irs diff.this means i wont need to open the main part of the gearbox,to go messin with the pinion.otherwise i wouldn't even attempt to fit the diff myself.
its all new to me,but i have spent ages reading up on it,and have a few lads to help if i get stuck.i would appriciate any advise from any of ye on here too if ye spot me going wrong or anything.thanks

 
one of the things i was worried about was not being able to get the diff shims,but i see them fer sale in the USA,on the Weddle website.
i need to order bearings and sideplates now.i could do with some advise on the heavy duty sideplates-the only ones i can see for sale seem to be cast aluminium ones from Bugpak-i'm not convinced how heavy duty they would be?
i came across pictures of billet ones by Erco,but i cant find them for sale-any advise on this would be much appriciated,as i would like to order them soon,if possible.
 
Still not even close to a "quaife test" video Justin-i'm just hoping if i ever get around to one,it wont involve bits of diff and gearbox flying around the scenery.
did make a little bit of progress tho.was nearly two months waiting for the shims,and couldn,t get all the ones i wanted.
got sideplates,bearings and seals too,and flushed the gearbox out with kerosene and re-painted it..



its probably just as well the shims took so long,as it gave me a chance to try and get my head around these gearbox thingys...they fry my brain a bit trying to figure them out-even watching you tube videos explaining diffs was making me dizzy watching all them twirly bits,but its slowly sinking in..i think..
 
Last edited:
Johnnyg gave me a great deal on a slightly damaged irs gearbox,and it was really handy,for seeing how they go together,and comparing measurements and a few parts like shims and spacer rings.
My friend Ray,who is a retired tool-maker gave me a hand measure things up to get an idea where to start.
we put it together first without the ring-gear,to get an idea of the pre-load on the diff bearings.the bearings are the same part as a T25 wheelbearing,so i thought i,d have a rough idea of whats too tight and too loose.the pre-load is adjusted by by changing the amount of shims between the bearing and the side-plate..



i read if a .006" feeler gauge fits between the side casing and the box,when theres no pressure on the bearing,its in the ball-park....(and all gearboxes should be measured in ball-parks...?)
 
Last edited:
i guess a lot of people will find this gearbox stuff boring..i know one of the hardest parts i found was trying to read one full paragraph of the Bently manual without falling asleep,so i'll try and hurry it up.
was fairly happy with the pre-load,so next borrowed a dial-test-indicator from Ray,and tryed to measure the backlash,which is the play between the ring gear,and the pinion gear..



this piece of angle bolted to the back of the gearbox locks the pinion shaft(i think its called)so the pinion gear cant move,and the play between the pinion gear and ring gear can be measured at the output shaft..



after a lot of messing around,i have the backlash down to .012". i believe it should be between .006" and .010" ideally.this is as close as i can get it with the shim i have at the moment.i need to find out if .012" is ok or not,but it wont be driving down the road for a while yet,so theres no panic.
 
Last edited:
i put blue permanent marker on the gear,to try and get an idea of how the gears were meshing each time i changed the shims.
it looked fairlt good the first few times,i think,but the only pics i have are of the last time,where the pattern wasn't so clear,so i'll have to do this again..

 
i also got these parts to have a go at replacing the torsion bars with coil-overs.it should make it easier to change the toe settings,the ride height,and the spring rate,if it works.if it doesn't it should be fairly easy to change back again.the bolts are 20mm diameter.should be strong enough,i hope.

 
i also got two of these poxy looking seats,that i don't think really suit the car,but they are approved for racing until 2020-i would really love to enter this car in a short circuit race in the next year or so,and hopefully fulfill my dream of beating Alain Prost to the 1993 formula 1 world championship in my Beetle-a lot of people tell me to cop on and get real,but i don't pay any attention,because these are the same conspiracy theorists who try to convince me that "Herbie isn't real"and "its just a film"...i don't have time time for these nay-sayers,and i'm fairly sure that by the time my Beetle is finished,you will be able to get time machines in Lidl for about £25,which is possibly the hardest part?....so im fitting these poxy racing seats..

 
i took out the old seat mountings.will have to weld in someting to hold the new rails very securely,as i know its one of the things they are very strict on in scrutiny,if it ever gets there.also took out the handbrake,as i have a hydraulic one to go in,and a vintage speed shifter on the way.have a new pedal box on the way too,with bias adjustment and a line lock,so i took out the old ones and painted the floor.





 
Fantastic work Colm, fair play for getting your hands dirty and going this deep with it, makes for a great read
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back