Project Slowly Underway: Berrien 295

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I mounted the floor I drew up for my sheet metal buddy to shear. Worked pretty slick to hold it up agains the frame by clamping it up with some 2x4s and drill down though he mounting tabs. M8 bolts and lots of washers... needed five washers between the floor and tabs due to the position the tabs were welded on. I could have used spacers, but packs of 100 washers are cheap at Fastenal. The washer stack also let me suspend the floor about an 1/8" below the frame rails to helo keep crap from packing up between the frame rails.

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I started sorting out a shift adaptor for my vanagon transaxle. Similar in concept to the weddle adapter, just made from stuff laying around. I had a bug shift shaft and an old shifter, so I figured a good place to start from was the floating ball and socket joint. I cut the shift ball off the shifter handle so I could make a ball stud by welding it to a bolt. I cut the top of the mounting bracket off and ground the socket of the shift shaft so the two would fit together. This allowed me to use the rubber boot to keep junk out of the ball and socket joint.

Just messing around. We will see where this goes.

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Made the bearing housing assembly for the mid shift adapter...

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Got back to the project this week. More shift linkage progress. I got the ball socket welded up to the shaft. I didn't have any thick metal on hand to make it from, so I just used 1/8" welded into an I-beam shape to get the stiffness I was after.







Ball stud got the boot sealed on...






Also, might be changing plans on the back end and going to short torsion bars. Reason being I scored a pair of 9.00-15 Baja Pro tires. Long torsion bars won't quite fit. This Dutch guy loves a good score on tires that never kissed the ground.

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Turned out pretty good. I'm happy with the results.

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Seals added to the bearing housing compleating my shift linkage. I changed the bushings to a larger flange so that it created a lip for the seal. Then I popped off the wheel cylinder dust boots, stretched them over the flange, then ran a fine bead of hot glue against the back edge of it. Heat shrink was slipped over and heated to shrink it. I made sure to apply enough heat to flow the hot glue I applied earlier. The hot glue under the shrink wrap works the same way waterproof electrical connectors work. :wink:

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The midshift Vanagon transmission is ready to roll. I got a rebuilt Bosch starter from autozone. With a core to exchange, it worked out to about 90 bucks. Not so bad. The one thing I ran into is the factory starter bushing is 13.5mm od. The new bushing that came with the starter is 14mm od. Since the original factory starter bushing was still good I just reused it. Might still plug the vent and drill/tap the top of the case for a 1/8npt hose barb to vent through a hose and fuel filter to keep grit out.

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Testing the rebuilt Bosch starter. She kicks over, that's at least a good sign. :lol:

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Modified the stock Vanagon mount by cutting off the flange that mounts to the rubber mount leaving just the plate behind. The plate will have to get welded to the torsion housing where the stock but nosecone mount is located.





I also ended up with a free vw bug hood. It's a bit banged up, but not bad. Figured it would make a cool nose for the front of the rail. Something more unique than the fiberglass noses available off the shelf. I figure some standoffs mounted to some 1-1/2" tube clamps will hold her on nicely. Still trying to decide how to paint it. Flat black, black and yellow, or a deep plum purple. I'm leaning black and yellow, but that might change. Shame it's orange...orange was my favorite stock bug color. Sad to paint over it, but it doesn't match anything.

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Stock throwout arm was trashed due to excessive wear on the forks, so I used an aftermarket HD 20mm crosshaft with solid brass bushings. A new throwout bearing was used over a new bearing sleeve as well.








I didn't have an extra clutch cable arm, so I picked up a new one from Appletreeauto. It's standard for an 091. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to extend it from the 73mm center to center and extend it to something more like the 75 and later irs bug at ~100mm. I dug a piece of scrap of 1/4" flat stock from the steel recycle bucket to splice in. Without cutting, this one came out to about 105mm, close enough for me.

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Well, broken scapula is back together after busting it into three pieces a few months ago. So now that it’s healed up I can start working on things again.

I’ll get some better daylight pics sometime this coming week, but she fits. Going to add an upper hanger for the top bell housing mounting ears. Other than that it is pretty much in. I was surprised that I didn’t have to notch the frame horns any despite how much larger the Vanagon transmission is compared to the bug transmission.

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Sorry this has taken me so much to to upload pics. These days with limited daytime hours have made it hard to get pics. By the time I’m done with work etc, sun has set. These are the best I got. Sorry guys.

First few are of the clamp on bell housing hanger I made. Although the bus into bug bell housing cradles work fine, I never did care for just the two m10 engine studs holding things together. Adaquit, but not my style I suppose. With this bell housing hanger, I get 4 x M10 bolts to hold down the back side.







The rest of these are just the mounts in genera. The front is actually a cut down factory Vanagon mount welded in. Yay recycling! As you can hopefully see, it fits nice.

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U-joints are salvaged from a Super Beetle steering shaft. I just cut it in half, slid the ends into a length of tubing long enough to run between the shifter and transmission, and welded them in place. The 5/8” pinch shaft collar connects to linkage on Vanagon transmission. Other u-joint has a 7/16” fine thread slug welded in that attaches to the shifter. Pinch bolts locks both ends down. Nothing fancy, the simplicity is good. Paint is curing. Will install sometime this week once the paint is cured.

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Paint cured. Time to install this weekend and get everything adjusted and tightened down.

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Well, wasn’t entirely happy with reverse gear engagement. Felt as though it wasn’t fully engaging for some reason. I pulled the transmission to investigate further. Took the front cover off and the problem was immediately obvious...



Turned out the bolt holding the shift fork to the shift rail wasn’t the correct size. Fortune it was a very simple fix. I took it apart and ran a tap through the hole to clean up some of the beat up threads. Then I used a new M8 bolt with a dab of thread locker and a lock washer. Ran a bead of anaerobic gasket maker on the flange, and torqued the cover down. Good as new. Shifts into reverse with a satisfying solid clunk. Time to let the sealant cure and pop her back in.