Betty's Beetle Gearbox swap - Completed!

Brazilian Bay - Gearbox Replacement!

This is a summary guide of my Gearbox replacement.

The Brazilian Bay Kombi gearbox is made in Brazil and is known to have reliability / poor quality manufacture and is best replaced by a German Gearbox.

Here is the progress summary of my Gearbox replacement. Basically its a Late IRS Beetle Gearbox from a 1300-1600cc Late Beetle (1302/1303s Models with the 1600s being the best)

In this case I swapped the RP code Brazilian Bay Gearbox with a 1302s 1600 AH code gearbox

Firstly find and select a suitable gearbox here is my AH code gearbox (new CV joints or Beetle CV joints are required as beetle Gearboxes have a 94mm Diameter CV joint and Bus / Brazilian Bays use a 100mm so you will need to have Bus Outer & Drive shafts and Beetle Inner CV joints)

You need to clean the gearbox and remove old CV joints.

Remove rear bumper & Valance:

Remove Engine:

Remove Old Gearbox:

Swap Over Nose Cone & Hockey stick from Old to new:

Install Beetle CV Joints on van:

Install new gearbox & connect up:

Refit engine. Test gearbox while still on axle stands to ensure all gears work.

Once satisfied away you go with a German Quality Gearbox.

Full comprehensive write up of each phase of my install is on my T2bay bay blog.

http://t2bay.blogspot.co.uk/

The new gearbox is Fantastic. Loads of long gears and low rpm in 4th!

Betty's Broken Gearbox ;-(

I have broken Betty's Gearbox!

Pile of Brazilian Rubbish and it deserved to die!

Anyway found a nice AH 1302s Beetle gearbox and purchased it 12 hours after breaking it.

Here is a full write up on my blog.

http://t2bay.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/broken-gearbox.html

Here is the video of the broken one in action! Listen to the clunking sound!

Anyway progress is well. New gearbox cleaned up, engine out and old gearbox is being dropped tonight!

Its going to be a Brazilian Bay / Beetle B**stard Hybrid (Gearbox and inner CVs from beetle and Brazilian Driveshafts and outer CVs)

Betty's Cylinder Head Issues

Started to notice noise coming from Cylinder head 3 and rough running.

Readjusted tappets and found that Cylinder 3 exhaust valve was very tight yet again.

Removed Rocker assembly and found that Exhaust valve spring was 3mm higher than the rest.

Adjustment on that valve was right at the end of the adjustment thread.

Having determined that there must be and issue with this valve (either the seat or a tulip valve) and needed the engine removing and the head removing. The question to be answered was DIY engine removal or get a garage to do the work.

Finally went for the Lions Garage in Loughborough to pull the engine and sort this out. At £50 per hour and a 10 hours work it was going to take.

After 8 days of waiting. The engine was out and it was found that the valve seat had totally become detached from the head and was just loose around the valve seat. Also the head had had a helicoil in that spark plug so was running very hot and destroying itself!

Here is the old head - Wheres the seat!

Got two new heads from VW heritage - Special heads for Brazil bay as they have special 22 fin cylinders and lower compression ratio for the Injection engine. £160 each. Went for replacing both heads so they are the same age and condition. New gaskets and push rod tubes and head bolts to ensure all is good.

All done and running OK. Much smoother and power. Just running in and will reset tappets after a few hundred miles.

Great to have her back but cost £670 in Labour and £400 in parts! Not cheap. Next time I going to remove the engine myself!