gear box and brakes

[venom]

hey
woundering if any one could help me, i have a 1300 1974 beetle i am keeping the original engine but sprucing it up. does any one know of a 5 speed gear box that will fit? also i wnt to convert it to disk brakes all round, but dnt want to spend a fortune are there any cars that i can steal calipers and a servo from?
thanks.

[tofufi]

hey
woundering if any one could help me, i have a 1300 1974 beetle i am keeping the original engine but sprucing it up. does any one know of a 5 speed gear box that will fit?

Anything is possible, but at what cost? :)

Gene Berg made a 5 speed gearbox specially for a bug, but they typically have the same ratios in 5th gear as a standard bug box for 4th gear. And cost upwards of £500.

Also... if you are keeping the aircooled engine, remember that the cooling fan speed is proportional to the engine speed.
Unlike watercooled cars, aircooled VWs run hottest at higher speeds. The little 1300 doesn't have enough torque to run that well on a 4 speed 1600 gearbox (which have slightly higher ratios). And it will run hotter as it is working harder, too.

Putting a high ratio 5th gear onto a 1300 would probably not be that useful.

To be honest, with a 1300 I think the standard gearing is probably about right. The VW factory knew what they were doing :)

[nobbysnuts]

if you don't have disc's at present change over with standard vw stuff, you won't need to do the back, just service up what you have, spindles can be obtained as used item's just new rotors and pads and hoses, worth doing the master cylinder as well, that should improve things.

[Andy OVC]

It is probably not worth changing the gearbox until you uprate the power from the engine and I am not aware of any cheap 5 speed boxes, your options are Porsche or Berg. With the Berg the idea is to have 1-4 close ratio for drag strip use and a stock 5th gear for motorway use. By the time you have uprated the rest of the box it will have cost you several thousand pounds. Porsche and cheap don't go together either.

You could probably get away with a 1500 box which will give you a higher final drive and drop the rpm of your engine for the same speed as compared to your current box but acceleration will be slower, another way of doing this would be to fit taller rear tyres. It depends how the look of taller tyres will fit in with the style that your car is, if it is not a stocker it will probably be ok.

[sixsprings]

if you don't have disc's at present change over with standard vw stuff, you won't need to do the back, just service up what you have, spindles can be obtained as used item's just new rotors and pads and hoses, worth doing the master cylinder as well, that should improve things.

we've recently discussed disc (or rotor, if you're american:p) brakes in the link below

http://forums.volksworld.com/showthread.php?t=400

and as andy says, fitting taller tyres is by far the easiest and cheapest way to get higher ratios...have you got stock size tyres at the rear now? i've seen plenty of cars with 195/50's ion the back and often thought that they must be awful on the motorway.

31/10.5/15 is a good size:D
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v258/zbqwpix/Mine/VW%20Action%2008/SDC10087.jpg

[FireDancer]

5 speed 'box on a 1300 engine - I can't see the point. Just fit slightly taller tyres on the back if you plan to do lots of motorway cruising.

As for cheap disc brakes - http://www.airsouls.com/how-tos/rear_discs.htm