whats up guys. I just registered to this site after finding you guys from videos on youtube. since i found the site I have gotten alot of info for the buggy I am building and I thank you for that. I used to have buggies when I was 18, some 13 years or so ago. the buggy I am building now is a pretty short frame with basically stock suspension. I am building an 1835 motor with stock heads and a mild cam. the tranny is a swing axle style and I was wondering if you think it will do ok or should I try to switch to an irs style. I am pretty decent at fabrication and don't think it will be that hard for me to accomplish. I will be doing most of my riding at wellsville and look forward to meeting alot of you. thank you in advance for any information.

Hands down convert to IRS.

_________________
Water cooled Dry Sumped Subaru Powered Turbo Charged Fuel Injected 2500CC Tank. Oh Rah! He who dies with the most Toys not only wins, He also wears them out!

Welcome to the site!

DEFINATELY switch to IRS. Unless you LIKE to rollover when you get sideways on a hill!! Everybody's different, maybe thats your thing.

Seriously , the gearing and strength of a bus tranny and cv's will make your trips more enjoyable, and longer (less wrenching). With IRS, then you can upgrade to some extended trailing arms to keep it from being too light in the front end (you said you had a short frame) . And the ride down those rough Wellsville trails will be a lot smoother!

Larry

although i tend to laugh sometimes after winding up on my head, it doesn't mean that I enjoy it so i would like to make that a rare occassion . I didn't even think of the angle of the downhill tire when sideways. that is definately some food for thought. Do you know anyone who has done the conversion cause I am wondering if it is easier to get a donor setup and weld on from the torsion housing out or weld on some trailing arm adapters and con my cousin out of the extra bus tranny he has. Thanks again.

Welcome to the site,if you cant find it here it dont belong on a WOODSBUGGY

i totally agree with larry. i had a 87" frame to begin with. we..... well my dad cut into it when i was working on my motor and well we used 1 1/4 " black wall tubing inside and 1 1/2 on the outside and ended up legthening it 15". i love bring very long. espically having the 1641 i have.

Welcome to the site. To do the conversion it would be much easier to weld on the trailing arm pivot to the existing trorsion housing. Replacing the existing torsion with an IRS housing is an other option but it is a lot of work.

Good luck and have FUN!

Roy

thank you all for the welcoming to the site. like I said before i have gotten alot of information without even posting by reading all the questions that have been asked and answered. I was hoping you would say to just weld on the trailing arm pivots cause it seemed to be the easier route. what has to be done to change just the torsion bars in the tube. I think I heard one is longer than the other but don't know which. I am also wondering if the bus tranny will bolt onto the transmission cradle for the swing axle. or will I have to adapt stuff there as well. I sure do ask alot of questions for someone who claims to be decent at fabrication huh.

You will need to buy a trans bracket for a bus trans.They are $30-$40.

_________________
IF YOU CAN'T MAKE IT IN A LITTLE BUGGY,IT CAN'T BE CLIMBED

Bugpack sells the "Bus into Bug" transaxle mount kit. That is one way you can do it. The other way is to make your own mounts. That's what I do. Either way, the bus transaxle will go into the swingaxle cradle with very little modifications. You will have to do a little bit of grinding to clearance a couple of areas but it is minimal. Make sure the cv output flanges on the transaxle are centered with the cv flanges on the wheels. The centerline of the transaxle is not the true centerline for the output flanges. Don't let this throw you off.
The weld on pivot points need to be positioned carefully. You should make a jig for each side using a stock IRS torsion as a pattern. The jig is easy to make and well worth the time spent so you get the parts welded on in the exact location.

R

Here's another.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/VW-BUG-B ... enameZWD1V

and another,,,,

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/sand-rai ... enameZWD1V

_________________
If your clutch ain't slippin,, you probably got it adjusted right!!!!!

thats awesome. thanks for the info guys. you have been very helpful.

If you dont want to make your own IRS pivot bracket jigs here is a link to buy them. There $80.00:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/ ... ?id=281289

_________________
Water cooled Dry Sumped Subaru Powered Turbo Charged Fuel Injected 2500CC Tank. Oh Rah! He who dies with the most Toys not only wins, He also wears them out!

I see this thread nearly 6mo old but since the subject is swing axle I have a question. It's not about off roading either but maybe someone will answer anyway.

Will a stock swing axle transmission hold up OK with a basically stock engine on a rail for blacktop drag racing?

_________________
WvvW Life really is an adventure! Covered with bug junk

It will hold up ok if you use the one with a 4.12 gear. The earlier ones with the 4.37 gears will break in short order. You will need to upgrade the diff. to a super diff if you want it to live more than a week or two. The double snap ring super diffs are fairly easy to deal with and work good.

Roy

thanks

Any number I could reference to which is best?

_________________
WvvW Life really is an adventure! Covered with bug junk