Sorry Dan, the ring and oinion cannot be flipped over on the Audi boxes due
to the gearbox housing design.
John.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Snow" <dieselvanagon@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 23:22
Subject: Re: Will (Audi) Porsche transaxle fit in Vanagon?

> In my own daydreams I build a Beck Spyder, which is a replica of the
Porsche
> 550 Spyder. The 550 is mid-engined, rather than rear-engined like the
donor
> beetle.  A lot of builders of these cars take a VW or Porsche tranny and
> flip the ring and pinion so that the transmission can be turned around and
> the engine ends up in the middle, where Ferdinand Porsche intended it to
be
> (don't flame me--the first two porsches were mid-engined, but it was too
> expensive to continue becasue it required too much modification of the
> kubelwagen and beetle components). This flipped ring and pinion is, to my
> knowledge, the only substantive difference between the Porsche 914 tranny
> and the 911 tranny.
>
> Anyhoo... I wonder if someone out there with Audi experience could tell us
> whether this is possible with the Audi transmisions. Audi drivelines have
> the opposite problem--they are laid out perfectly for a mid-engine
> application but backwards for a rear-engine one. Obviously a quattro
tranny
> wouldn't work, but I hafta believe that a 5000cs turbo (FWD) tranny could
> handle anything you can throw at it within reason. As you probably know,
> audi engines are mounted longitudinally, and Audi transaxles sure look
like
> Porsche/VW transaxles (if I recall correctly, the first Porsche 924
trannies
> were an Audi part. Just that a big tube and output shaft separated the
> engine and tranny). And if the ring/pinion is easy to flip, why not leave
> the tranny connected with a nice Audi 4, 5, 6, or 8 that would fit under a
> modified engine cover? I bet the whole unit from a 5000 CS turbo would
cost
> less than the Porche tranny by itself.
>
> Daniel Snow
> PhD Student
> UC Berkeley
>