Modifications

In this section, I plan to give you some info about the modifications I am performing. At the beginning it will be just a list, but as I complete each part of the work, hopefully the format will grow into a more informative 'what worked and what didn't' type discussion.

Suspension.
Brakes.

Brazilian ball joint wishbones onto split front beam. (..coming soon at a browser near you!)


This the bus boys IRS kit. On the left you see the bus boys torsion tube brackets and spring plates. Whilst on the right you see the so called 'bus boys floating' drive shafts, type 3 control arms and hubs.

I think that there are many problems associated with this kit. The first is that it uses type 3 CV joints. These are a lot smaller smaller than bay window bus CV joints. You have to think that VW probably knew what they were doing when they scaled up the size for a bus. Also with this kit there is an incredible angle between the transmission and the wheel hub if the bus isn't lowered, which looks seriously unhealthy. It also necessitates the long drive shafts. With this kit you also need to change the position of the bump stops. One of the dopeist things about this kit, I feel, is that you have to smash the heater tubes inorder to fit it. A kit should fit the car and not visa versa.

This another option which I am going to try. Here you have the hubs and spring plates from an early bay (<72). Later bay spring plates will not fit as the torsion bars have a larger number of splines on their outer ends. The picture on the left shows what can be ripped form an early bay. The picture on the right compares the length of a control arm from a brazilian bus to that of the bay. As you can see the Brazilian control arm is shorter and is at a steeper angle. This is because the brazilian bus has a similar type of gearbox hanger to that of a split. So if your dream was a conversion kit made by VW you have one! You can buy these control arms from any Brazilian importer such as Bernard Fuhrer in Germany.

Unfortunately there is a minor problem with this idea. The length of the torsion tube in a Brazilian bus is slightly longer than that in a split. Correspondingly, the distance between the spring plates is also slightly longer. This results in the Brazilian control arms sitting quite close to the gearbox hanger when fitted up to a split. This is shown in the picture on the left above. Although the control arms do actually clear the hanger, (please see picture also on the right), the problem is that the space for welding a bracket around the control arm is pretty limited. The most easy solution is to make the gearbox hanger actually part of the bracket.
There is another option on the same theme out there, which is to use modified baywindow bus control arms. Wayne Tyas from Volksheaven in the UK sells pre-cut and shortened control arms for this purpose.

So now we have a control arm that looks the business and a bus CV on the outer end. What about the inner end?

To be honest ant the moment I am not sure. Here we have a type 3 IRS transmission next to a brazilian bus one (top). The brasilian bus one obviously fits bus sized CV joints. However look at that selector. It is much higher than that in the type 3 transmission. Will it fit in a split? No it won't is the answer. When you look at the pictures below you will see why.

On the left you have the gearbox hanger from a German split bus, whilst on the right you have one from a Brazilian bus. What I hope you can see is that the shapes of the gear box hangers are completely different. The Brazilain one rakes downwards at a much steeper angle than in the german bus. This allows the box to sit much lower and cures that nasty angle between the transmission and the wheel hub which I talked about earlier. Again it does appear that VW knew what they were doing !
Answers or suggestions anyone? At the moment I will have to continue to live with the nasty angle and the type 3 inner CV joint and gearbox until I have come up with a solution. I'll keep you posted of any progress.

This is the custom and speed parts disc brake conversion. It is very expensive, but is presently the best way to run discs whilst keeping the wide pcd of an early bus. Custom and Speed Parts have a web page if you fancy reading more on this kit. Soon I will show how this kit can be fitted to Brazilian wishbones. Now doesn't that sound like fun!

More to come!!!!

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This another option which I am going to try. Here you have the hubs and spring plates from an early bay (<72). Later bay spring plates will not fit as the torsion bars have a larger number of splines on their outer ends. The picture on the left shows what can be ripped form an early bay. The picture on the right compares the length of a control arm from a brazilian bus to that of the bay. As you can see the Brazilian control arm is shorter and is at a steeper angle. This is because the brazilian bus has a similar type of gearbox hanger to that of a split. So if your dream was a conversion kit made by VW you have one! You can buy these control arms from any Brazilian importer such as Bernard Fuhrer in Germany.

Unfortunately there is a minor problem with this idea. The length of the torsion tube in a Brazilian bus is slightly longer than that in a split. Correspondingly, the distance between the spring plates is also slightly longer. This results in the Brazilian control arms sitting quite close to the gearbox hanger when fitted up to a split. This is shown in the picture on the left above. Although the control arms do actually clear the hanger, (please see picture also on the right), the problem is that the space for welding a bracket around the control arm is pretty limited. The most easy solution is to make the gearbox hanger actually part of the bracket. There is another option on the same theme out there, which is to use modified baywindow bus control arms. Wayne Tyas from Volksheaven in the UK sells pre-cut and shortened control arms for this purpose.