Afternoon all ( how inclusive is that ) . So I'm currently prepping for a paint strip and redo of my 2nd rail , and currently just prepping the gear box for a lashing of paint , ie hours of wire brushes in a drill . This is a swing axle with a 2 bolt nose cone . It does have any Lettet prefixes before its numbers , .

I've compared it to the other two swing axle boxes and all the casting numbers are the same . However its serial number has no lettering and there is no room infront of the numbers to have any . It also does not look like it's been re ground and a new number applied as the casting lines are still prominent ...

What do you guys make of it ?! Ie is iit just a normal swing axle or could it be some thing a bit different ratio wise ?

Cheers in advance

That is an early 1200 gearbox! So better suited for off roading with it's lower overall ratio's.

Cheers for the swift reply Rob ,  and a big thankyou for answering the query , and given what you've said , it's seems something has finally gone in my favour ... I have two other S/A gear boxes , 1 torn down and one college and ummed and arrhhhed about chucking one of those in ,  now I'm glad I didn't ...

I've managed to clean it up nicely and currently have a coat of etch primer on it , took me the best part of 4 or 5 hours of cleaning . Just got the drive shaft tubes and hub back plates to go now .

Once again , cheers for the help 👍🏼

That is an early 1200 gearbox! So better suited for off roading with it's lower overall ratio's.

That is an early 1200 gearbox! So better suited for off roading with it's lower overall ratio's.

They take a bit of cleaning up    but nice job. I've been thinking, the early 1200 box's might have better gearing for off roading but I seem to remember that some of them didn't have the synchromesh on first gear! which would be more of an issue when off roading. On the road, you only really need first gear when you come to a stop.

Rob

The rail this is going back into is going to be a light off road but more I road vehicle , so even if it's a bit fiddly from 1st to 2nd isn't overly ans issue and if it is , I can always chuck one of the other AB boxes in .

As a slight side mission on this , I've cracked the hub off and it seems a small amount of oil has made it into the hub assembly from the shaft , is this normal or should I strip the ends and replace the seals ?

Cheers in advance

They take a bit of cleaning up    but nice job. I've been thinking, the early 1200 box's might have better gearing for off roading but I seem to remember that some of them didn't have the synchromesh on first gear! which would be more of an issue when off roading. On the road, you only really need first gear when you come to a stop.

Rob

There should be a spinner inside the brake drum to catch any oil going past the seals but unless the brake drum was torqued up seals can and do leak as the O ring is not compressed. Early wide 5 oil deflectors are silly money for what they are but they keep contaminates off the brakes.

Agree with snoopy here. The "spinner" is an essential bit Also make sure the "drip" hole in the outer casting is clear. . Take care if you replace the O rings. It`s fairly easy to nip one or both on re-assembly and then you find you are still leaking. I only use CSP seals and gaskets when replacing the hub bearing /  seal. Other reproduction "paper" gaskets are so flimsy that they are all but useless.

Cheers Paul and Snoop , I'll take a look on my manual and see if I can make sense of the assembly , admittedly the manual is a 72 onwards , but I know Heritage do exploded diagrams , so make check there .

The passenger side  it was okay to undo , I had a bit of a fight with there driver side .... Could I of upset them in trying to undo them ?  I had drained the gear box down before all this but expected there to still be some in the drive shaft tubes . I just don't want to get it all back together and in the rail and find it still leaks .

Cheers Sam

They change from 1st to 2nd ok it is just that they crunch, going from 2nd to 1st if you are not at a standstill

Rob

https://www.justkampers.com/111501631-brake-drum-oil-deflector-vw-beetle-1946-1964.html and I moaned at paying £25ish a couple of years ago for somebody

There is more than one variant in the make up of the rear hub bearing and it`s associated parts on the swing axle systems. Whilst I have used the Haynes manuals many many times there is a source of archived documents including specs exploded diagrams etc etc. All freely downloadable from the American Samba.com website. Over the decades people have donated scanned documents from original VW sources etc. They have all you will ever need about any subject on VW air cooled vehicles of all ages.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/

Cheers for that Rob , I should be okay operating the way you describe , I'm not to fussed by having to come to a standstill , as I have so little body weight , slipping a little in 2nd to keep rolling shouldn't be an issue .
Snoop , I see what you mean , that isn't cheap but if it saves a mess and failing brakes , I might have to invest , as there certainly wasn't any in before I stripped it out . Just the shoes , brackets , calipers and brake adjusters .

Paul , thanks for the link , I'll take a look and see if I can find any spec for this setup ,  I didn't think to use Samba for diagrams . I've mined the hell out of it for front beam info , but not brake setup

Going by what you guys have said , that Would it be possible that I caused the oil leaks by undoing the main hub nut , letting the pressure off the seals ?

Cheers again guys 👍🏼

And here it is , all painted up now , etch primed and so far 4 coats of matt black upol ...new boots ready to go on , just waiting for delivery of the crimp tool for the locking rings on the boots .. Now going to stash it safe until I need it .