I'm interested in buying some VW van RGBs, upto 4 total. Large nut preferred. I'm just interested in the "boxes" alone. Dont need tranny/tubes/etc..... I'm having a hard time finding any around the area (ohio). Most of Samba ads are out west......

If you have some or know someone with some that they would sale, please let me know. PM, post up, or email me. Thanks.

what the hell is that never heard of it!

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ANTI- antifreeze!!!!!!

I think he is talking about the Reduction Gear Box (RGB) from an early swing axle bus. They are reduction boxes that were at each rear wheel of pre-IRS busses. Maybe there is a large nut version and a small nut version.

i thin you are probably right. i have heard of them. just not to popular for woodsbuggys

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ANTI- antifreeze!!!!!!

no but if im guessing right hes making a 4x4 which would give nice ground clearence if you could figure how to make the fronts furn. original humvee army trucks use the same idea.

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If it ain't broke ill fix that

I you all want to learn something here is the scoop.

Reduction gear boxes came in early model VW Bus 1967 and earlier. They also came in VW Things all the way up to 1971. US market never saw these older Things unfortunately. All the Things had the small nut boxes.
(I had a 1970 Thing a long time ago.)
The difference between the large nut and the small nut was strength, The large nut refers to the axle nut that holds on the brake drum. Large was 46MM and small was same as a bug at 36mm. All large nut gear boxes were in the later bus approx 1964 to 1967 and these had a conservative ratio. I think it was only 1.2-1 or something close. The earlier small nut had several ratios available over the years. These ratios depended on what part of the country (world) the bus was sold. Remember the early pre 63 bus only had 25-35 horsepower pushing that brick all around. You needed GEAR. I believe the steepest ratio was called an alpine ratio at 1.83-1 or similar.

All this info is from my memory which is getting old I'm afraid so don't hold me to it. Just thought I would share. My early days of buggying I had a buggy with reduction boxes (from the thing) and a transaxle with a 4.37 gear. My final drive ratio was 6.02-1. It was alot of fun.

Roy

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Buy the best and cry once.

Very InterestingThanks

Great info man, seems like your memory is doin just fine haha

they looked like a big bull frog because they would "hop" every time you mashed the throttle .

Sorry I didnt post to this sooner, havent got any notices...gotta check my settings..... anyways...



Check out this link for some visuals---> http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewto ... sc&start=0



That is exactly them.



I've heard this from VW "buggy" guys. I have never saw them in action, but the additional torque produced at the hub would only make since that it would load the "traditional" rear suspension.

I plan to do a modified type setup, but it is a future project anyways....so I still have some planning and gathering.



BTW I still need 2 if anyone has some, I am looking at buying them. I happened to find a decent deal on two in florida that the guy shipped for cheap....

X2,lol.i used to run them back in the day.just remeber the ring and pinion is flipped.nothing like putting the wrong tranny in and having 4 reverses and one foward gear, lol.. Chad

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NOW GAS IT!!!!!

The reduction boxes can be beefed up but the type 1 trans will always have a week point be it the bronze shift fork, or the weak case. The other downside is the limited travel available due to the solid swing axle. Look into the early H1 hummer set up it used a reduction box to lower the spindle/ drive while maintaining low angles on the CV joints.

Not knowing what your final goal is the early bus reduction boxes have their advantages and disadvantages.

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Water Cooled Consortium, Chairman of the Build (Former AC purist)

Thx for the insight. Yeah I plan to plate and beef up the boxes and I'm not looking to use the "original" transmission. This is quite a hybrid planned build and ultimately I want to go to a Double Aarm type suspension with CVs.....This will require quite a bit of modifications, so we will see how this pans out. Someone also mentioned the rotational difference, but this is easily changed by changing the position of the engine.


I was hoping since no one uses them that some of you guys (that have VW connections/sources) would want to get rid of these things, or know of some.....I will continue to look for them. If someone does know of some or knows of good places to look for them, let me know. Thanks.

I have personal scraped at least a half dozen sets over the years. Never saw a use. You do not have to be stuck with the VW style gear reduction. you could use a modified system like Passat does on here and use a transfer case for you reduction. Heck you could even int theory have a PTO option. I would look into the Zuke boxes as the allow for a divorced trans. Just thinking out load here.

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Water Cooled Consortium, Chairman of the Build (Former AC purist)

If you're still looking for these, I saw a complete assembly (trans and boxes) on cincinnati craigslist and one on the samba.

http://cincinnati.craigslist.org/pts/3366022331.html

"On paper" , I drew up the best baby chain set up ever that is about 4 inches narrower on each side than other baby chains that I have seen, 30 minute, interchangable ratio, adjustable, rear sprockets and very tough using tougher bearings than bug.Using a stock bug c/v axle.The c/v axle is fwd a few inches so it will not be moving at high angles.100% tire clearance.It's another winter project.The length from the torsion tube to the stub axle is about 5 inches more than stock.