electric beetle - lose gear, keep diff?

[Bruce2]

What max rpm does your motor turn?

You are going to need to retain at least one gear since the input shaft of the trans is not connected to the output shaft. It will probably be 4th gear.

You can probably leave out the shift rod, the hockey stick, internal shift rods, forks, 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears. The trans would need 2 custom spacers to take up the distance left from leaving out those other gears.

For reverse, have a big switch on the dash to reverse the polarity of the motor instead of switching the gear. That way the trans will always be in gear. No clutch required.