https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scd7_I5CCGo
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Good reference - wonder if there is one on the front nose cone and rubber mount? I have '71 pan and a '74 IRS so need to change front mount.
I found this to be a good ref for transaxles. Of course, they could have been rebuilt/altered over the years but good start in determining year/gearing.
At this point in history almost everything has been apart at least once. I have found later parts in early transmissions and early parts in later transmissions. And that's just from the randomly-sampled half-dozen I've taken apart.
The only surefire way to tell gearing is to take it apart and count the teeth.
Now, about the clutch.
IMHO, anything older than 1973 could have an early throwout bearing, but 1973 and up SHOULD have the later style. I have personally converted both ways depending on the clutch used and/or available at the time. Weddle makes a conversion piece that allows a late throwout bearing into an early transmission.
We didn't even get into 180mm or 200mm clutch assemblies. 1965 and earlier should be 180, unless it's a Bus(they made a 6v 200mm clutch, yup). And 1966 and later should be 200mm, which coincided with the 6v to 12v changeover. However, as with all things VW, there are exceptions.
This leads us into the land of starters. There are 3 bushings for the starter shaft available. There are two starter gear sizes. The early 6v gear is almost 30mm in diameter, the 12v gear is closer to 25mm. You absolutely need the correct gear for your flywheel. A 12v starter will work in a 6v flywheel, for a VERY short time until the flywheel teeth are stripped. A caveat is BOTH starters have 9 teeth. Most cars are 12v now, and most have a bigger 200mm flywheel, so the later 12v starter is used most often. The auto-stick starter or an IMI-101gear reduction unit are used often because they are both self-supporting and don't need a bushing in the transmission to work.
The biggest failure point and frailty of the older style throwout bearing is the spring clips that hold the bearing to the clutch cross shaft. This is super easy to remedy: throw out the clips that come with the bearing. Purchase the HD clips from Weddle for a few bucks. I keep a couple sets on hand and use nothing else. These do not fail.
add inspection hole to adjust shift he makes a hole and uses plug to block it but this he says allows first gear adjustments.
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EZ GZ is a bunghole and should not be followed.
A transmission MUST be taken apart and put in a jig to adjust the shift forks. There are three of them. That hole only accesses one of them(1-2) and severely weakens the case. You can kinda see reverse fork bolt under his knuckle of his index finger, and then the 3-4 over to the right.
I think this is a great example of what NOT to do.