4th gear in my '72 Beetle is making an ominous noise. Suspect it is the death knell of an internal bearing.
So I'm shopping for transaxles. I can find a used one for small money on CL at one end of the budget spectrum, or drop thousands of dollars on a top of the line race prepped unit. So many options.
This is a predominantly street-driven car, to the tune of 10k miles/year. Spirited driving. Autocross on weekends. Pushing something like 130hp to the wheels, and I'd like to leave the door open for up to 300hp. Want to keep it long enough in the leg to run 80 on the freeway without redlining. Bonus points for limited slip.
Mendeola? Rancho? MoFoCo? Weddle? Scat?
Pending making this thing Challenge legal (which I'm doubtful about), I can play with as much as $2000. What's my best option?
Beetle. There's quite a range of Beetles out there. You got a built '67? One of the "New" abominations? Know that if it is of the new ones, transaxle R&R requires substantial audience participation. I did it once. I won't do it again.
In reply to rdcyclist :
Sorry, 1972. Edited first post to reflect.
Call Rancho and talk to Mike ,
He has been building gearbox's for 20 years or more , they do gearboxes for shops all over the world ,
And Mike has been drag racing bugs for just as long.....
Just to add , there are 3 stock ring and pinion ratios , and a couple 4th gear overdrive ratios.
Plus lots of close ratio gears that will rev too high on the freeway, figure out the Rpm range you want to drive on the freeway and work backwards...
As far as a junkyard transaxle 1969 and newer bug , Ghia and type 3 are the same ,
There is a change about 1971 for the throw out bearing and matching clutch cover.
Also replace the clutch lever spring , easy to do out of the car but a real pain to replace in the car with motor installed...
In reply to californiamilleghia :
It takes what, 20 minutes to pull a VW Type 1 engine, right?
Yeah 20 minutes if it's been out before , the rear has not been pushed in and you have a floor jack or too...
A little more on a milk crate in a gravel parking lot !
I'm running an early '90s Subaru 2.2l, but even with the extra wiring and coolant to remove, I have had that engine out in under 45 minutes.
So Rancho is the answer? I remember seeing their name on a Ghia set up for road racing.
Rancho has tons of used gearboxes for parts so probably every combination you could think of ,
And they have built gearboxes for off-road , drag racing and crazy street turbo motors , they know what works ,
There are other things you may want to do , trans straps to hold the gear box to the frame , larger 930 CV joints etc ,
It's been done 100s of times
