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Thu Jun 20, 2019 11:45 am

I have been looking into Subaru motor and trans swop I've seen a few blips on the net but no real information on it I was wondering if anyone on samba has done it I have the skills to do it and all the drive line parts from my 02 WRX any information would be great

Thu Jun 20, 2019 12:26 pm

Bigred716 wrote: I have been looking into Subaru motor and trans swop I've seen a few blips on the net but no real information on it I was wondering if anyone on samba has done it I have the skills to do it and all the drive line parts from my 02 WRX any information would be great

I are curious as well. If you need a shortblock, I have a non turbo '07 2.5 that would be a good rebuilder. Or maybe ill use it in my next vw project. hmmmm....

Thu Jun 20, 2019 2:30 pm

There are factory made 4x4 beetles.

Sorta.

Thu Jun 20, 2019 3:21 pm

Kommanderwagon or something like that. To make a 4wd you would need a totally different front suspension. I guess you would need some front end from a 4wd or front wheel drive. I’d thought about doing it. You need spindles that are meant to drive the wheels. Might be easier to use a super beetle since they have struts already. I used to see a front wheel drive, front engine bug near me but I don’t know what they used parts from. I’d guess if you use a Subaru transmission you would want to use the front differential that came with it. Otherwise the gears would most likely not match. There was some one building an awd bug using synchro parts but I don’t remember if it ever got finished. It might have been in the off-road forum.

Thu Jun 20, 2019 3:42 pm

I have had the thought about using those parts. I'm not sure how it would all work in a bug cause you're flipping the whole drive train around. Gear drive directions etc.

Thu Jun 20, 2019 3:48 pm

Wonder if Subaru gears would make reverse cut ring and pinion gears for the "other " differential. I'm assuming they're different than the trans gears

Thu Jun 20, 2019 3:49 pm

Or use a Vanagon syncro drivetrain

Thu Jun 20, 2019 4:00 pm

I think once you reverse the pinion you don’t need to reverse anything else. I saw years ago they said they were working on a awd. But you would definitely need to reverse it somewhere. A synchro is Or was one of the most expensive cars to maintain for a while. And that was years ago. They are pretty rare now at least from what I’ve seen. To buy a donor would be a lot. Not to mention if the transmission needs a rebuild. A synchro uses a 1.1 front diff I think so you need the synchro one as nothing else I’m aware of uses a 1:1 ratio.

Thu Jun 20, 2019 6:14 pm

That would take a huge amount of work and fabrication...
Just drive a Subaru.

Thu Jun 20, 2019 8:07 pm

Quote: Kommanderwagon or something like that Kommandeurwagen (also seen it spelled Kommandeurswagen), the Type 87.

Somebody in the Split Window Beetle forum no more than a few years ago was building a 4WD Beetle using a shortened/narrowed Vanagon Syncro drivetrain.

Thu Jun 20, 2019 8:54 pm

Here's a guy doing a Ghia AWD Subaru.

Read the thread and maybe you can pick his brain:

https://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=149524

Fri Jun 21, 2019 5:57 am

If you have really deep pockets you may be able use the Porsche 964 4WD system.

Fri Jun 21, 2019 11:40 am

Something tells me this is going to end up looking like a monster truck, a little beetle body dropped on a massive 4×4 chassis.

I kinda like it.

Type 87 is the bomb, cooler than a schwimmwagen, in my eyes.

Fri Jun 21, 2019 12:39 pm

FreeBug wrote: Something tells me this is going to end up looking like a monster truck, a little beetle body dropped on a massive 4×4 chassis.

I kinda like it.

Type 87 is the bomb, cooler than a schwimmwagen, in my eyes.

Someone here in NC made a nice looking, jacked up 4WD beetle using a toyota hilux chassis on 33" MT's. I initially scoffed when I saw it and then started liking it, the closer I got. There was a HVW article on a black one that looked very similar, many years ago.

Fri Jun 21, 2019 4:01 pm

esde wrote: Wonder if Subaru gears would make reverse cut ring and pinion gears for the "other " differential. I'm assuming they're different than the trans gears

if your talking about the rear diff ( if it was in factory location ) you dont need reverse cut gears, you can just flip the diff upside down and itll run backwards

Sat Jun 22, 2019 7:44 am

Do you want it to look like a normal bug or a monster bug?

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=438646

Fri Jun 28, 2019 9:09 am

I was hunting on FB and found a page called AWD '69 Karman Ghia convertible build check it out

Thu Jul 04, 2019 6:27 pm

You can use the Subarugears reversed AWD transmission and a Subaru rear differential in the front. The rear differential can fit in the front of the pan if you raise the roof of the pan a few inches to clear it.

The front hub setup depends if you are using a beam beetle or a strut beetle.
For a strut beetle, you cna basicvally put the Subaru front struts in to replace the VW ones.

For a beam beetle you need to introduce a different upright that has enough room to accomodate the AWD hub. This means reversing the balljoints on the trailing arms so they face outwards and bolting in a custom hub.

Subarugears has a thread on this called "AWD conversion begins" but the project didn't quite get finished....the buggy was lost to the ex-wife in the divorce and has bene sold on.