OK volks,

In my never ending quest to create the ultimate Baja :duh I have decided that I would like to convert my swing axel pan to IRS and use a 1600 Kombi Gearbox. I have seen this conversion done a number of times and it looks good, and, due to the fact that my brother has recently destroyed a number of swing axel gearboxes in his Baja we have made the decision to convert the cars to run something a little stronger.

I have been doing a fair bit of research on the conversion and I understand most of it, but I have one question...

I know that to do the conversion you must use beetle axels, fitted with inner Kombi CV's (so that they will bolt up to the Kombi gearbox). Do the Kombi CV's just fit on the Beetle axels or are more mods required. Also, is there going to be some sort of issue due to the fact that the Kombi box is wider than a Beetle box or are the CV's going to be OK with this...?

The reason I ask all this is that I have a set of Beetle IRS axels in good condition and I also have a set of Kombi axels in good condition, so if it is just a straight swap and there is no other modifications required then I will be able to use all these spare parts.

Any comments or suggestions (regarding the IRS conversion or just the axels) very welcome.

Also, If this has been covered somewhere else, could you please post the link.

Thanks

R

you need to get the beetle axels machined to take the Kombi CV's. You can use beetle CV's on the wheel side or get Porsche stubs and use the Kombi CV's all round to allow a higher operating angle on the axel(so you can adjust the rear up more).Ask the guys at custom offroad....

...

Call the boys at COR.

Here is a link to the modified axles:
http://www.customoffroad.com.au/partFull.asp?partid=26 

Here is some other links of interest to you:
http://www.customoffroad.com.au/partFull.asp?partid=25 
http://www.customoffroad.com.au/partFull.asp?partid=37 

there is also some info on Baja Wes' rebuild diary see here:
http://www.offroadvw.net/bajawes/ 
or more specifically:
http://www.offroadvw.net/bajawes/wes/aug_sep.html 

Hope that helps.

Cheers Mick!

That just about answers all my questions for now....

R

he Kombi box is about 20mm wider than the beetle one. The inner Kombi CV runs further into itself than a beetle one and the Drive Flanges are deeper. This allows for the 20mm.

To use Beetle axles you need to machine about 5mm off each axle shoulder to allow the wider kombi CV to fit and the axle to float better.

Just make sure if you are going to do your own axles to allow for the fact that the Axles are hard metal and will flex small lathes. Also make sure you round the shoulder so you don't get a stress area with a square shoulder.

Dont the axles have a square shoulder for the CV to butt up against already?

you can't compare the factory shoulder to a machined one. The factory shoulder is not square like a machined one would be. I have seen axles which people have been machined without thinking and these have ended up cracking.