swing axle ring gear

[buggyryan]

hey guys is it possible to flip the ring gear in my swing axle tranny. i am going to mount a corvair motor and would rather flip the ring gear, than reverse drive the cam and distributer. my buddy did it with his 914 and said it ran even better. thanks

[Vee Dub Nut]

I believe you can..

I have seem some discussion on whether running the trans backwards is good for it or not though. I've never done it and don't have enough knowledge in that area to say for sure or not.

[Buggy1]

Well this is the third time I am trying to post but I am going to try again.

yes yo can flip the ring gear and it will work just fine. Early buggies that used the corvair did this a lot and had no problems, except they would sometimes ripp the tranny cause you romped it. I had one for a long time and it ran great that way. After all, Early busses did that to make the outside alpine gears work - you won't be able to do wheelies though it throws the front end towards the ground ( I tried just once ).

Neal

[buggyryan]

it throws front end down? what you talkin bout ? well that would be good since with the engine i am assembling, it should be pushing around 175- 250 hp depending on the fuel system i use. and with it proly weighing less than 1000 lbs with me in it that would be one wheel standing machine.or were you just joking? you guys kill me, so it is just a matter of reversing the ring gear and it will be good to go? also i was told about side stepping it and blowing the tranny so in that case do they make a stronger bus trans in swing axle format?

[Buggy1]

No Buggyryan,

Your not thinking it through........with the ring gear fliped, the turning of
the engine tries to lift the engine up instead of pulling down.. That reverse rotation tries to lift the rear engine up up thus the front end wants to go down....... NO WHEELIES.

I HAD A CORVAIR ENGINE BUGGY AND I KNOW THAT THERE IS NO WHEELIE POSSIBLE. WHAT, YOU DON'T THINK I TRIED?

I don't put jokes up on the internet.

Neal

[David O']

Better get a super diff and stronger axles..........or you'll be breaking a lot of stuff.....seriously! I just made a deal for two three barrel carbs for the 140 HP corvair engine I have!
I want to do the reverse grind setup just so I can get the front end up! That will be a hoot!

[the 'Maniac]

Yes you can "flip" the ring & it will work with the "stock rotation" Corvair engine.
However... you will be applying pressure to the "coast side" of the ring gear & it is not as strong as the "drive side".

If you drive like a sane person, it should last a long time!

But if you start dumping the clutch &/or run big tires/wheels & get on it hard, like trying to do wheelies, you'll start breaking the ring gear, spider gears, axles etc.!

I bought a complete running "reverse-rotation" Corvair engine that I'm freshening up & should have installed soon!
I already installed a new "RANCHO" re-built swingaxle transaxle with a Super-Diff & a few other goodies!

The best way to find out how much HP & torque your Corvair is putting out at the flywheel is to have it put on an engine dyno!
The engine I bought supposedly put out 220hp, but it's probably more in the realm of 150-160hp.
In reality, the new 140hp Corvair engines only put out about 100-110hp!!! Chevrolet overated them quite a bit! The reason folks believed them was because of the massive amount of torque that the flat-6 put out!

A friend recent put his flawless Turbo 180hp Corvair on a chassis dyno & it only managed 91hp at the rear wheels!

For more Corvair info :
www.corvaircenter.com

[David O']

The ring gear in the VW transmissions is not a hypoid gear setup, so there isn't a coast side to the gears. They will run any direction. The point that should be covered, is that the thrust loads in the gear sets is reversed, and the transmission will not take a bunch of load that way. It is in the engineering. The reason that the corvair engine ran in reverse, is due to the fact that the chevy people did not want to have to make a whole new set of gears for the corvairs. The gear sets in the Saginaw transmission were the same gears as in the Camaros, in design. Also, the ring an pinion gears were hypoid (pinion gear not centered to the ring gear), and there was a coast side and power side to the transmission. The corvair transmission pinion shaft was completely hollow, so the clutch shaft could be put to the gear at the front of the transmission, where the bellhousing and clutch shaft was in the camaros.