750 virago buggy

[daaboots]

Another question. You said in a post that your shortened your axles. How did you shorten them because it doesn't look like you cut them in half. How long were your axles when you were done shortening them?

Thanks buddy

David

[pvanheck]

Hey David I don't remember how long the Subaru axles where over all but I think I had to cut 3" out of them. You have to first scribe a line down the lenght of the axle to make sure you weld it back timed correctly. then cut the axles and take out the amount to be shortened. grind a bevel about 1/3 of the thickness of the axle and lock it in a vise and check for squareness and in time. I weld the them with a stick welder and 7018 rods for the absolute best penitration and strenght. and work your way around building up the weld in layers. never grind the welds just chip the slag off and leave natural that way if you do see the weld rust free and a lot cleaner than the rest of the axle you will know you have fatigue and unusual stress in the weld and it will need attention. I keep an eye on them when I clean it or after long runs but I am happy to report no problems, even after some serious mud time with lots of wheel speed. I hope that explains how I when about it.

[daaboots]

Ah ok... sounds good. If you could get that measurement for me sometime that'd be great. Take care.

[pvanheck]

Hey David I don't really want to disassemble the rear end to measure the axles but they came out of a 1984 Subaru Legacy.

[daaboots]

LOL... no I would want to do that either. I guess my question came out wrong. What I was looking for was the length of the axle AND cv, not just the axle. I'm looking at getting some VW axles and CV's off eBay just but I just wanted to see what other people were using before I bougth them. The lenght is 16 3/8", which is a bit longer than I'd like.

Take care, David

[pvanheck]

Hey David No matter what axle setup you are going to use if it is derived from a street car chances the track is going to be to wide for a single seat buggy. I don't remember off hand what size the cv axles from the subaru where but it was not hard work to modify them maybe half an hours worth of labor. I used a whole independant rear suspension from the subaru because I got the assembly for $80 and the center section had a long snout that made it easy to adapt to a chain drive. I cut it up to make it work. I personally will probably go with a VW independant swing arm setup on my next buggy (2 seater with a GEO METRO 1.3L engine and tranaxle) I have plenty of VW parts laying around and always liked there suspension it is quite bullit proof. Thanks Pete

[pvanheck]

Hey does anybody have any real world idea on how much a Geo 1.3l and manual transaxle weighs? I know the engine block is aluminum.

[pvanheck]

Hey has anyone ever thought about using drive train out of a Honda Goldwing ?

[Gene]

See BDKW1's build thread in Projects In Progress.

[pvanheck]

Hey Gene did He ever get it finished and running? If not is there any other buggys out there running goldwing setups?