When someone talks about a transmission swap, it often involves adding a gear or two.
Not us.
During our Lemons outing with our VW Fox endurance race car, something inside the transmission broke, preventing the box from holding fourth gear. We couldn’t find another five-speed transmission–anywhere–for this oddball application, so we went with the next best option: the more commonly …
Ok that's a nice big stick with a socket on the end. I can tell by just how little you moved the nut you are not even close to having it torqued down to what it needs. If my memory is correct but probably is not I feel they should be north of 260 and possibly closer to 360.
Did a quick search and there is a audi 80 5speed at the pick n pull in St Louis MO. It will work in the fox. Also found a few audi 4000 5speed trans scattered around the country that will work as well.
brad131a4 (Forum Supporter) said:Ok that's a nice big stick with a socket on the end. I can tell by just how little you moved the nut you are not even close to having it torqued down to what it needs. If my memory is correct but probably is not I feel they should be north of 260 and possibly closer to 360.
Nope. 172ft-lbs, no more. We snapped the threaded end of quite a few of these axles from over-torquing.
brad131a4 (Forum Supporter) said:Did a quick search and there is a audi 80 5speed at the pick n pull in St Louis MO. It will work in the fox. Also found a few audi 4000 5speed trans scattered around the country that will work as well.
Many of those transmission are mismarked.
They need a 2P which is quite rare, from four cylinder FWD Audis when the five cylinder quattro was all the rage.
I thought you guys were running CIS? How are you going to chip it?
If you want to see what a Fox does with more power and a good transmission, you can look here.
We're running Digifant 
And not sure what clip made it into the video, but the nut is overtorqued if anything.
Since this is a north-south motor, could you fit a later A4/Passant transaxle in there?
Extra crazy points for quattro.
the $800 fox I had in HS was 5 speed. Had no idea the trans was unobtanium. Unfortunately I basically gave that car away when the injectors all went full open and filled up the cylinders with gas.
any chance to go to a shorter ring and pinion? would hurt fuel economy and enduro range, but might make 3rd more usable.
Tom Suddard said:We're running Digifant
And not sure what clip made it into the video, but the nut is overtorqued if anything.
Did the Nord-Locks help? Maybe we'll get some for our Fox if they do.
stylngle2003 said:any chance to go to a shorter ring and pinion? would hurt fuel economy and enduro range, but might make 3rd more usable.
They should just go with shorter wheels/tires.
In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :
Hard to go much shorter than a 195/50 15 these days. :/
And to the person that asked about Nord Locks: So far so good! We haven't tested much, but our impact gun can't remove the nuts anymore so that's progress.
In reply to Tom Suddard :
truth! maybe you need 22s to make 2nd taller...
Axles loosening up is often a sign of weak wheel bearings. I wonder if Audi 4000 strut housings had larger bearings.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:Axles loosening up is often a sign of weak wheel bearings. I wonder if Audi 4000 strut housings had larger bearings.
They're the same wheel bearings.
VW used a friction locking nut with no other failsafe. It's a poor design.
(Many of those transmission are mismarked. They need a 2P which is quite rare, from four cylinder FWD Audis when the five cylinder quattro was all the rage.)
Weird I have found a few front drive 80's with 4 cylinders that would work. Guess I need to go through my paperwork and check out the codes.
Ok the Bentley transmissions codes listed for the 4 cylinders are AKL or AUF for the 2.0ltr block. The AKT is listed for both the 2.0ltr and 2.2, 2.3ltr motors and is the quattro one. Yes there are a few but rare 4 cylinder 80 quattro's out there.
You'll need to log in to post.
