I've been searching for the post on gearbox's that had serial numbers with years....and I can't find it.... HELP ME

http://www.pre67vw.com/production/gearbox_codes.aspx 

Aussie '67 and earlier never had a letter at the begining of the code,
just a series of numbers,(except some split buses).

I thought I had a handle on the "non-prefx" numbers,
but it seems VW produced some trans here, using the same number series as much earlier german trans.
In general if the number is 900,000 or greater it may be 1967,
but I have a 67 Aussie trans here at the moment that is 491 764, so that theory is out the window in this case.

1500 beetle are AO or later AC.

Best way to ID them is by the clutch arm, nose cone seal and plug, and side cover design.
Dimantling, i the only other way to confirm the ratio specifications.

shit your quick, my codes are
DC0660293 IRS
6874250 ( in my 64 beetle)
4805686 (spare)
3260496 ( in the oval from the TNT (col's $100 box))

Another thing is, around the end of 1966, the axle tube retainer as made from two pieces and uses an O-ring inside to seal it.

To clarify, the earlier nose cones did not have a seal on the shift shaft,
and did not have a plug for the (future) reverse light switch.
Also, around late '66 they also went for a straight clutch arm, where as the earlier ones had curved ones, and pre '63,(I think),
actually used a pinch bolt instead of a circlip.

The important reason for mentioning all this stuff about the 67 trans,(my favourite) was,
although it still has a 6V size bellhousing and starter bush,(the only negatives I can think of),
it was the last box to still use steel forks throughout,(until about 73),
and had an 8-bolt crownwheel, with the good Oerlikon tooth form,(Aussie) for better strength than the previous Gleason 6-bolt 4.375.

The later 1500 boxes from 1968,(German) had better highway gearing with the 4.125 dff,
but they went for a crappy bronze fork for 1st/2nd,
and these are extremely bogus.(weak and often fail).

By 1973 the swingaxle boxes from the 1300 twinport bugs were pretty good except for
weak reverse gear,
and fine tooth gears in 3rd and 4th.
These had a 0.931 fourth gear and a Gleason 8-bolt 4.375 diff, so were the lowest overall 4th gear ratio of any of the beetles.

Frosty,
the DC one is from a type 3 and probably has a bronze(bogus) fork,
although the 4.125 diff ratio would be nice for someone wanting highway cruising....but too tall for you.

The other three prob not much chop(too early),
although have a closer look at the 480**** one.
The fact that it has 7 digits may mean it is too early.(6 digits seems to inicate the later Aussie ones).
Sus out the key markers: clutch arm, nose cone and axle tube retainers.

Those early trans are not entirely crap because they all had steel shift forks and good metal caged needle bearings.
These features can be incorporated into a later trans if need be.

A note on some details of the codes....
The AO and AC codes that I said were from the 1500 beetles is not 100% correct.
The AO s actually A0(A zero).



Also somewhere during the early 70's the AC trans got the larger pinion bearing.
The easy ID feature for this is they went to a single drain plug under the trans instead of the previous two.

As you can see from the photo above, the number appears to be stamped by hand.
My opinion is that this is a feature of German trans manufacture. 1968 is that one with the AO code.

I think, in Australia, when the did the cases for a couple of years up to that point,
they had a machine set, or at least a different style of number.
Here are some examples of codes I think were stamped here.
Note the feint circle around each number,
and how they are in a much straighter line.

Most of the Aussie ones had 6 digits and Germans had 7, which is where I got lost with the codes.

That last one with orange paint I think is one of the last ones to come from the Aussie factory,
being that it has 7 digits and a 4.125 crownwheel and pinion made on an Oerlikon machine,
but still old key style,(later ones had a spline on the end instead of the early keys).

This one may also be Aussie,(6 digit) although numbers are not in as straight a line, but same stamps:



...and this one is a 67 bus,(large spline reduction hubs).



Cant tell for sure if it is Aussie until I strip the core to observe the crownwheel and pinion.

Some of the older trans,(that I think are of German manufacture), DID use a 6 digit system,
but in most cases these were something other than type one,(type 3 or bus),
so that can also help to get a better guess of what is inside.