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Post by heartnut on Jul 31, 2016 15:36:32 GMT
I have decided to try switching the standard 3.23 differential gears for the B axle 2.78 gear in the search for more speed from my 700cc engine. I'm intending to do this somply by dropping out the axle, and pulling the entire assembly in two with the hubs and half shafts in place. So I am just going to undo the pinion nut and the bolts round the diff (later 2-part type) and ... pull. Then hope to wiggle the thing back together with the new crown and pinion. If anyone knows a good reason why I should not do this, please speak now. Important information would be that the B axle gear won't fit into the unlettered Bug axle, or that there is specific alignment and tensioning or suchlike requiring specialist knowledge and tools which means that the teeth will never align correctly and it will chew itself to bits in a week. Something like that. In the meantime, a photo of the warzone. Today's peeve, the long bolt which holds the panhard and the left top suspension arm is stuck solid and twenty different techniques to shift it have resulted in no more than one exploded socket. Yesterdays peeve was of course, the polyurethane replacement bushes are the wrong size. Attachments:
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Post by bondbug750 on Jul 31, 2016 16:39:17 GMT
Karl (this forum) explained a little to me about putting B internals into a Bug 2 piece axle
...If I recall correctly the inside of the offside diff case has ground back a little in a couple of places to accommodate the B crown wheel
If you read the car manuals apparently setting up a diff is a skilled job what with the shim washers, the preload and the engineers blue checking how and wear the gears mesh - but I've come across many who've worked on a diff without all this malarkey to no ill effect
You might have to destroy that bolt ...grind the head off or drill it out - I've got a new one I can let you have if it comes to that level of violence. But go steady on that lump on top of the chassis rail that this bolt goes through - on early Bugs it was a just a square block and it proved weak ...it was later replaced by a longer wedge block which was stronger |
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Post by karl on Jul 31, 2016 22:12:27 GMT
Works best with 850 engine.
Either remove half shafts swap diffs dads done this for his bug and a few others. On my bug I kept diff cassing and put b axle inside, you will need to, Carefully grind away someparts of inside of original bug diff casing.
Both work
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Post by heartnut on Aug 1, 2016 12:57:20 GMT
Yeah I read the preload, shim piece probably in the Regal Haynes manual and felt very nervous. I'll be using the crossed finger technique. Regarding the panhard bolt, I'm at the point where I could either wimp out and leave it and settle for the old panhard rubbers on one end being OK, or probably having it snap off in the next round of persuasion. It's breaker bar with extension plus ring spanner on the other side with nut screwed up to its fullest extent. Fortunately it's the V shaped wedge or I'd be winding open the chassis like a spam can.
Karl, thanks for confirming that I'm going to gave to grind. Are we talking angle grinder or Dremel? Hopefully that will be the only grinding to be heard after I refit the axle. Boom Boom! I'll get my coat
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Post by karl on Aug 2, 2016 12:50:22 GMT
I used a grinder with a sanding pad. Becareful, there's not much room and you dont want the grinder to snatch.
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Post by heartnut on Aug 6, 2016 17:35:12 GMT
Ah, I see. The replacement crown gear has more knobbly rivits on the back than the original, so having to grind back some ridges in the small side housing.
Surprised to find that my axle was geared lower than I even thought. Pinion has 9 teeth, crown 32. Not a type mentioned on the Fifers forum. That gives a ratio of 3.55. No wonder I was getting nowhere fast. Looking forward to setting off at 2.78.
Today's surprise, the pinion oil seal I need to replace has a metal outer which is not currently minded to come out. The one I have to replace it is solid rubber.
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Post by heartnut on Aug 7, 2016 11:16:01 GMT
The size of the pinion gear is very different, much larger than the one its replacing. As such, it fouls the stud holders in the casings on either side. Karl, help! Did you also have to grind out semi-circles into these? Photo 1: Pinion gears are different sizes. See also my grinding work to accommodate crown wheel. Photo 2: New pinion cannot insert fully due to projecting stud moldings.   |
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Post by heartnut on Sept 22, 2016 20:17:46 GMT
I thought I should round this topic off with a report of the result. The change in character of the car is of epic proportions. Rather than whipping through first, second, third, into top and then the engine over revving to get over 60mph, each gear is transformed in length and suddenly it's a pleasure to drive. The top speed seems to be around 85 mph but even there the engine is nor revving overly high, just wind resistance and drag overcoming the power of the engine.
I might be running a 750 engine, I was told it was one when the original was replaced with a recon but I never trusted the garage that did it. Anyone get messed about by Trendhart Limited trading as Southern Technical Services of Slough in the early eighties? They claimed to have bought all the bug spare parts from Reliant. I still have a price list from them.
Where are the engine numbers located, and is it possible to tell from them what sort of engine it is?
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Post by bondbug750 on Sept 23, 2016 7:40:29 GMT
I live in Slough and had a run-in with Trendhart once - I ordered a new Bug chassis and paid a deposit ...but got nothing
But on the plus side some time later I came across an abandoned Bug body shell behind a demolished cinema near where their shop once was; that provided some useful pieces and I presume it was something do with them and was left behind when they ceased trading. I vaguely recall an effort made by some Bug enthusiast to rescue and recover some Bugs and Bug bits that had been in Trendhart's scrap yard in north Slough / Burnham
The engine number is at the top of the block at the rear of the engine on the distributor side ...Fifer's Reliant website has a database of engine numbers from which you ought to be able to recognise the type of engine you've got |
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Post by karl on Sept 24, 2016 9:38:19 GMT
Well done with the swap to b axle, runs even better with 850.
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Post by heartnut on Sept 27, 2016 9:28:44 GMT
I was 18 when I bought this bug, and the seller took me on a test run just short enough that I wouldn't notice the blown head gasket.
I couldn't shift the head, so I eventually struggled it to Trendhart (Trading as Southern Technical Services) where the nice lady promised a quick repair service.
The months dragged by with evasive answers to calls and eventually they told me the engine was a write off and I needed a new one. Then the bills started to appear. These needed to be settled or they would not continue with the job, but I was not allowed to see the car. I was just a kid with a crappy job and they essentially emptied my bank account. After about five months of this I had had enough and I went to Slough on the bus from Woking, filled with determination that I would not return home without my car.
I entered their shop and after listening to the usual excuses in person, and being presented with another bill, I refused to leave unless they gave me my car back. A stalemate endured for the rest of the day while the lady was alternately nice and nasty, and eventually, as they could not get me out, I stayed the night with the bewildered Pakistani man who lived over the shop. Late the following day, their willpower snapped and they brought me the car. I left poor but victorious and it broke down with massive overheating about three miles down the road.
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Post by heartnut on Oct 15, 2016 14:46:15 GMT
4J/8/12745
So according to the database, Trendhart Ltd did indeed change the engine for a recon 750. That means my bug has a bigger engine than my Smart Coupe.
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