944 brakes on a swing axle

[vw62rag]

ok so i did a little more searching and found these, i havent emailed the guy yet but i will.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/alb...p?pic_id=72883
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/alb...p?pic_id=72884
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/alb...p?pic_id=72885
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/alb...p?pic_id=72886
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/alb...p?pic_id=72888
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/alb...p?pic_id=72890
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/alb...p?pic_id=72893

[flat]

The pics there are for 944 aluminum backing plates that have been machined to retain the shortaxle bearing. My concern with that is that the 944 backing plates have a grease seal on them that was designed to retain grease. When you put them on a swingaxle car, the oil leaks a little. The advantage of the 924T ones is that you can use youe swingaxle bearing cap, with the oil slinger. Anyone out there use modified 944 ones on a swingaxle? Any issues with oil seepage?

Lanner

[vw62rag]

looks to me like the oil seal from a bearing cap will fit right in to that 944 modified backing plate, i dont see the problem? can you post a picture of the oil slinger your talking about please?

[vw62rag]

[vw62rag]

i only run the 61 - 66 one. thats the one i need.

[flat]

vw62rag,

Yeah, I was talking about the oil slinger on the long-axle long spline setup (1968 bug and all year T3's). I've always recommended the 924 parts, but now that they are getting harder to find, I will look into using a modifed 944 backing plate.

Thanks for posting the pics, and keep us all up-to-date on the progress.

Lanner

[vw62rag]

is this the oil slinger your talkin about?

[danielzink]

I tried going that route with the aluminum backing plates at first......trust me it doesn't work. I seeped gearbox oil everywhere after one run down the highway and the gear oil got warm and thin. It was a huge mess.

As stated - it's worth the time and effort to haunt the salvage yards etc. to find the correct backing plates. Do it right once and you'll be much happier.






Dan

[vw62rag]

i dont understand? why and were would it leak from? i mean you put the same oil seal in the aluminum backing plate as the bug end cap? please explain

[danielzink]

Okay..........


here's what it looked like with the aluminum backing plates:





Please note how deep the splines go in relation to where the slinger will sit and the "lip" on the blue seal......That's your problem...



Here's a pic with the slinger on.....I could just push the slinger on and past the blue seal with no problem...it's not a correct fit. That's where it leaks...and it leaks like a sieve.




Now notice how everything works when installed "correctly" - no more leakage....




If it was as easy as slapping the aluminum backing plates on these axles and bolting everything together and it all worked right - MBT wouldn't be making repro backing plates and we wouldn't be searching every Porsche breaker in the country for these steel ones.


Dan

[Steve C]

Hi

Did you have the O ring on the axle behind the slinger? I've fitted lots of later model drums and backing plates to swingers with no problems. On short axle cars I only needed to cut down the snout on drum.

Steve

[danielzink]

Think in the third picture you can actually see the o-ring.

Dan

[vw62rag]

i emailed the guy ( the one i got the pictures from ) and he said this.

Oldspeed in Paramount Ca. can machine the aluminum ones for you, I paid $80. It was about 6 years ago, maybe his price is different. Talk to Russell. They are the ones in the picture. I have them on two cars and don’t have a problem with leaks, seals are 6 years old. They seal just like an early axle. The picture of the hub was just to show how the front was machined down and the rear for a bit of extra clearance on the drum mod. Maybe the people who have leaks didn't machine deep enough for the backing plate to go over the bearing. Are these going on a bug? My friend did the same thing in 1992, never had a problem. It's a lot of brake for a bug. I have front and backs on my bus, first time I drove it I almost supermanned it through the safaris. I will look if I have and axle tube and axle to take pictures bolting it together. It might be cheaper if you do it the other way, you can save on the machining cost and just bolt on the steel. I've never tried that one.

[vw62rag]

hey, flat i knowticed your now selling rear 944 brakes to fit swingaxles. could you please tell me what needs to be done to the stock 1985 na 944 brakes to run them on a long axle short spline set up? id like to do the machining myself. any help would be great
thanks

[flat]

I'm not sure about the long axle/ short spline setup. I'm trying to sneak in some time to mock it up. I did the long/long setup first, because it's the most common, especially with all the bus guys and straight-axle conversions.

In general, there are 2 problems with the alum backplates on swingaxle:

1) the bearing depth is not right, so the bearing is not captured right and floats around (which is not good). You have to machine the 944 backplate, press in a sleeve and the machine the bearing pocket to capture the bearing.

2) The oil seal does not seal properly, so the front side of the 944 back-plate has to be machined to allow the seal to properly seat and stop leaks.

I'll let you know what I come up with regarding the long/short setup

Lanner