Single Side Plate gearboxes...

Over the past year me and my dad managed to acquire a couple of single sideplate gearboxes. However, they have different ribbing on the top of them, and it has us both confused. Would anybody know the origins of either of these and which would be the stronger housing to use?

This one we pulled out of an L-bug, but it had a 4.125 diff in it.


This one we picked up from somewhere else. It had the 3.875 ratio in it, but the ring and pinion was absolutely stuffed.



Also, can anybody comment on the quality of the brazilian 3.875 ring and pinion sets that are available new?

i think the bottom one is out of a 76 beetle, i believe they have different internals to the earlier ones and are a little stronger (this is what i was told... never had experience with them myself). someone like craig torrens should be able to give you more info.

btw i like your brace bar. do you need to cut the body to fit it or does it sit low enough to clear?


[ Edited on 15-9-2006 by whatnow ]

I got two of the type in the top pic and have seen one of the box on the bottom pic, confused me too, sorry i don't have an answer for you.

The one with the offset rib is later. Yes '76 I believe.

The other one normally has good internals.
And unless it is out of type 3, it will most likely have 3.875 diff,
but there are all sorts of combos out there.
Especially with all the rebuilds and parts swapping out there.
Most(seen some that dont!) SSC trannys have the "superbug"
9 tooth first gear, and 002 style 3&4 engagement parts.

Their biggest downside is the reverse gear is often worn,
and it is almost impossible to use the case for swingaxle.
These trannys are good cores for parts in performance rebuilds.

I used to use the early SSC case for my drag tranny's before I
went for the Bus.

I have never used the later case, but unless VW was saving material on it ,
you would think a strength improvement was the reason for the later
cases to be different...like the busses.

To find the age or original use of the case,
roll it over and look for the letter prefix stamped on the lower right side.
The first two letters will match one on
here:

http://www.midsouthvw.com/TechTips/tech_tip_TransaxleCode.htm

and on those cases the last 3 or so numbers represent the month and year.

whatnow wrote:i think the bottom one is out of a 76 beetle, i believe they have different internals to the earlier ones and are a little stronger (this is what i was told... never had experience with them myself). someone like craig torrens should be able to give you more info.

btw i like your brace bar. do you need to cut the body to fit it or does it sit low enough to clear?


[ Edited on 15-9-2006 by whatnow ]

It should clear by around 5mm