I've had little success finding an affordable 4 speed aircooled tranny. I've been wondering if there's any way to put a lower smaller R&P in the existing diesel trans. As far as I know, I have access to all the tools needed to rip a vanagon trans down and rebuild it. What donor R&P's would work? Is it worth it? Has anyone else done this?
It requires complete disassebly as the pinion is integral to the mainshaft. If you have the tools, then great. Here's a link to a trans ratio chart for vanagons.
Obviously the DK air-cooled one would be the tallest, but if you got a good R+P from one it would likely come with the whole transmission attached. The later water-cooleds here pretty much all had the 4.83 or 4.86 which I believe would swap over.
obviously, if i could find a junked water cooled trans, I could save a few bucks, as long as I was willing to invest the time. Also, saves the hassle of buyinga trans to find out once its in, that its junk...
While you're in there, be sure to check the 3-4 sychro hub as the earlier ones were flawed, and increasing the hp output of your motor will cause it to go out in short order. If it is square edged grooves it is the flawed part.
well, I'm sort of against a wall with the diesel r&p swap.
I think it's quote alot of work. Maybe I'll just roll around with my diesel trans for a while and see what I think.. The up side is I just found out my td block has only .030 ring end gap, almost new!!
Hone, ring and go... Woo Hoo!!