Perhaps you missed my point... the gear assembly in the transmission had
been replaced with a Hewland gear assembly.  Hewland is well known for their
strength and reliability.

At no time did I suggest using a stock tranny for this application.  And it
was only a possibility worth looking into.

BTW: We were definitely over 1500 pounds.  We're talking about a 138"
wheelbase two seater carrying 45 gallons of fuel and two people (large
people, I'm sorry to say), three 42" coil-over shocks on each rear wheel and
two each on the front.  Additionally, you should consider the amount of
stress put on the tranny due to extreme changes in torque and rotation speed
during a race.

Cheers,

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: BenTbtstr8@aol.com [mailto:BenTbtstr8@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 2:30 PM
To: jeff@tssgi.com; vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Engine Conversion Transmissions

In a message dated 1/14/03 2:14:56 PM Pacific Standard Time, jeff@tssgi.com
writes:

<< It was a Class 1 / Unlimited off-road buggy.  I can guarantee that the
 amount of abuse delivered to that tranny over the course of several Baja
 500's & 1000's was quite a bit more than will be delivered by a Vanagon
 regardless of the driver.
 It's a bit pricey though... >>

That buddy must have weighed in at less than 1500 lbs. Driven for perhaps a
few hundred races. Versus a 5,000 lb. beast driven for several hundred
thousand miles.

My point is your application is not comparable to Bruce's intended use, IMO.
I have seen many a 901 & 915 tranny broken in a street driven 911 with a
3.0.
The Vanagon trans as been discussed repeatedly in this forum, is a less
robust transmission compared to the Porsche counterparts.

That's neither here nor there either. It's best if someone with a 911 engine
in their Vanagon can chime in. I will check with a friend of mine as to how
long his Vanagon trans survived in his 3.2 powered ride before he switched
to
a G-50. Last I heard he was installing a one-off 3.6 liter 911 conversion
made by MSDS.

BenT
<A HREF="http://hometown.aol.com/bentbtstr8/myhomepage/index.html">Vanagon
Cafe</A>