914 Trans into a super beetle....

[18wheelerbob]

Hello folks,
I wonder if anyone has attempt the swap. I was told to use early tail type trans and remove the differential and flopped them and reinstall. Not sure how true it is but I don't want to spend $1800.00 on a 5th gear kit for air cool vw's.
Need advise please

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

It has been done into Type III vehicles that I know of. Not sure about Type Is.

One problem is that the 901 box is physically larger than the Beetle one. So you have to take a hammer to the transmission tunnel. Another problem is that the shift linkage on a 914 transmission is weird. Even the tail-shifter one sticks out of the side of the tail-cone (nose-cone when turned around), and hooking up a linkage to it would be an interesting challenge.

I believe that part gets easier if you find a nose-cone from an early 911 or 912 transmission, since the selector sticks out forward instead of sideways. But it is still much lower than the linkage in the Bug, so you have to come up with a way to get them to fit and work with each other.

And, of course, there is the question of mounting. There's no way the 914 transmission's "ears" will fit into the transmission tunnel, let alone be useful in hanging the trans. So you would be cutting them off (unless you got a 901 nose-cone) and working out how to mount the box securely, but without transmitting too much vibration to the chassis.

It's all doable, but there's quite a bit of fabrication involved. If this sounds like a fun project, go for it. If you're only looking for a cheap way to go 5-speed and you're not much of a fabricator, this probably isn't going to be the way to go.

--DD

[18wheelerbob]

Dave I really thank for the good read between the lines advise given. I think getting different ratio 3rd and fourth gear will make the car freeway worthy with less headaches and expense.

[Matt Monson]

A lot easier to start with a 901 gearbox and swap in the taller 5th from a 914 gearbox than to modify and reconfigure the 914.

[18wheelerbob]

Thanks Matt for a new sign of hope of having the 5th gear for freeway driving. Could you please give me some sort of step by step instructions on how to start this project or a web site that has done it? I really appreciate any advance and help into this matter, thank you Matt.
Sincerely,
Bob

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Note that a 901 transmission is almost identical to a 914 gearbox with the early 911 nose cone. Externally, at least. Most of the difficulties I mentioned are going to still be present. An additional difficulty is finding the 901 box in the first place. They don't seem to be quite as available as tail-shift 914 gearboxes.

Here is an article about doing the 901 into VW swap: Type 1 VW Transmission to Porsche 5 Speed Conversion -VW Parts and VW Tech from Aircooled.Net

I'm not sure if that article addresses the shift linkage. The swaps I have read about have wound up using the 914's gear shift lever and at least part of its linkage. I don't know if that's due to the difference in motion between the Bug and 901, or what. An article with pictures can be found here:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=135709

If you want to replace the 5th gear in the 901 with the taller 5th of the 914 box, you'll need to open up the gearbox and at least partly disassemble the gear stacks. IIRC, that means new bearings in the intermediate plate, because they usually fall apart or break when you take them apart. So that's pretty much a whole transmission rebuild by that point. You can use Dr. Evil's DVD for rebuilds, or Google up the guide that "red-beard" wrote up a number of years back.

Since Matt is basically the guru for Porsche transmissions and can probably rebuild these in his sleep, I'm not sure he quite appreciates that a simple 901 box rebuild may be a bit challenging for most of us shade-tree types. It is doable, though.

--DD

[18wheelerbob]

Dave, I sincerely thank you and Matt for the response to my question. It's my wife's b-day today but I feel it became mine too. lol.
Thanks guys,

[Matt Monson]

Dave,
The key difference is that one can unstick and restock 901 gearsets with a basic set of tools that most shade trees possess.

Moving the ring gear to the other side require a ring and pinion tool. Good luck finding a used one for less than $2500 these days.

This is the cornerstone of my suggestion. Anyone looking to put a Porsche gearbox into a Beetle will have to have some problem solving and fabrication skills. The ring and pinion tool? Probably not.

[18wheelerbob]

Dave since you stated that Matt is the guru of Porches tranny I will follow his advise and of course give all the information here within to my mechanic the fabricator and gear head I'm sure he can figure it out. But nevertheless this is why we have sites like this one. To express our opinions and our goal is to help one another, that's what it's all about. As stated before" thanks guys."