ALFAGTV6.COM

Sporttunergtv6 · Post by **Sporttunergtv6** » Mon May 01, 2006 9:12 pm

I am glad you asked that... i have not yet opened an alfa romeo transaxle. Can you just remove gears? if you wanted to keep only 4th gear actuated could you remove all the gears except 4 and then weld the gear selector into a permanent position. also... could you just eliminate the clutch at that point? i have not been able to find an alfa sei rear differential and this might be the only way to adapt a front mount gb
vittorio

Sporttunergtv6 · Post by **Sporttunergtv6** » Mon May 01, 2006 9:13 pm

hmm.. this was supposed to pop up under the "2 trannies" topic but i guess a new thread works too!
v

zambon · Post by **zambon** » Mon May 01, 2006 11:38 pm

You wouldnt need to weld the gear selector in place, you could just remove it completely. Removing the individual gears would be difficult, because you would need to replace the gears with spacers. You would then still be left with all of the gears on the (input shaft?).

Sporttunergtv6 · Post by **Sporttunergtv6** » Tue May 02, 2006 5:02 am

what if you were to machine groove into the shaft and then install something like a snap ring on both sides of that one gear? or maybe just one side... so you can replace the gear if you ever need to and the other side could be something permanent. that would get rid of the need forspacers right?

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Tue May 02, 2006 5:49 am

machine a snap-groove you mean?

Sporttunergtv6 · Post by **Sporttunergtv6** » Tue May 02, 2006 6:25 am

yes YES, you stickler!! i was thinking about this last night... i was sooo excited it took me 2 hours to fall asleep.
v

Sporttunergtv6 · Post by **Sporttunergtv6** » Tue May 02, 2006 6:26 am

yes YES, you stickler!! i was thinking about this last night... i was sooo excited it took me 2 hours to fall asleep.
v

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Tue May 02, 2006 8:20 am

I just can't understand why...

Sporttunergtv6 · Post by **Sporttunergtv6** » Tue May 02, 2006 6:29 pm

well if the gearbox could be stripped down to one gear it would reduce the weight of the transaxle and it would bypass the need for an alfa sei rear diff... ya know what i mean? i am thinking froun mount gb here... but name of the game is ingenuity. you saw on the alfetta with two trannies thread the dual shift linkage. i would like to hypothetically streamline that idea just a touch.

i am aware that there are heap loads of alfetta transaxles everywhere with gears and syncro's in them... and those parts might be good but the idea using a front mount gb (where new gears and syncro's are a phone call away) paired with a 'thinner' transaxle solely spinning 4th gear... a nice clean gear that gets along w/ alfa owners.

performatek, et al. charges an arm to rebuild a tranny... not that i would send a gb to them for a rebuild (esp with ship to costs, labor, etc)... i would do it myself (and the first time it would prob take a week) , but for the extra effort on the outset a good transmission and the subsequent replacement parts required after 60k miles are just a phone call away.

example: 350z 6 speed transmissions. one just sold for less than 100 greenbacks on ebay! it had a defective 3rd gear syncro. nissan recalled these transmissions and now all these dealer takeouts are being sold. the cost for the new syncro is 100 bucks. 200 bucks for a 6 speed transmission well acquanted with over 250 hp is--- wow. strip the rear gb... install a 50% lsd or weld the spider gear and off we go

-v

jornmason · Post by **jornmason** » Tue May 02, 2006 8:23 pm

why in the world would you leave the transaxle in the car if you are going to go to a forward gear box, there are many companies that make rear differentials even ones with brake caliper mounting so you can keep the brakes right where they are, you can also get them with whatever level of limited slip you like, fully customized ratios, not to mention the weight, i dont understand why you would bother locking up the original unit, sell what you have and go all new.

Sporttunergtv6 · Post by **Sporttunergtv6** » Tue May 02, 2006 8:48 pm

wouldnt the fact the the dedion pivots at the front bushing require the use of another 2 piece driveshaft with a support bearing at the crucial junture where the front bush is? i would hypothetically like to use a 1 piece ds from the transmission to the the rear diff... we know that the alfa sei diff is nice bc it fits in the same place as the transaxle. that is why i kind of shy away from eliminating the transaxle all together...
could you perhaps link me a a rear diff? are you talking about simply a live axle? if so: what about the dedion moving under the car. i have adjustable watts linkage but even if i were to limit the amount the diff can move absolutely, then wouldnt that cancel some of the benefit of the dedion pivoting around mid ship??? or am i incorrect in my assumptions about the dedion..

cutting out the trans tunnel and some of the front firewall is one thing... but going all the way back to the trunk is a huge undertaking especially because the sheet metal would possibly have to take some pain in the butt shapes aft the rear cross member.
-v
ps: instead of there being a rear motor mount... the transmission would bolt to the motor and the the rear most part of the transmission would have to be fixed to some newly fabbed cross member, correct?

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Wed May 03, 2006 3:18 am

Get a BMW diff and mount the support bearing where the de-Dion beam is now, problem solved.

No more mokey business.

jornmason · Post by **jornmason** » Wed May 03, 2006 8:47 am

the bmw rear differential is a really good cheap solution, the ratio is about right and there are tons of used ones in every junk yard. the only thing you have to deal with then is mounting the brakes up, you could figure out a way to mount them to the diff or move the brakes outboard. as for the cutting, its not nearly as complicated as you are making it out to be, you wont have to do any major cutting aft the front seats, obviously will have to do some fabrication for mounting but that was a given. mounting take a look at the way alfa mounted the transaxle and follow those lines, the bmw diff used a very similar rear mount and the front one would be easy enough to fabricate, just remember you do need to mount the front to the dedion tube or the suspension wont work right. you should be able to use a solid drive shaft but im not sure on that you would have to run a straight line from the center of the output shaft of the tranny to the center of the input shaft on the diff and check the clearances, should work though. hope this helps!

Sporttunergtv6 · Post by **Sporttunergtv6** » Wed May 03, 2006 10:04 am

well i took a look at the bmw differentials. do they also use cv joint axle half shafts? i guess if the factory flanges dont fit you could simply have them machined alfa spec on one side and bmw bolts through the brake disc and into the differential spec...i imagine it would not be too difficult to fab a rear diff mount that utilizes the something similar to the rear bushing on the gtv6 transaxle.... i recognize that i would need one on each side though : (... not having to go searching for the right size cv joints would be nice.
i was thinking more about the single vs two piece ds and you guys make a good point if i needed a two piece ds the support bearing could be muonted to the dedion cross member instead of the body. the two piece design might actually be very practical. i am sure that a one piece shaft from trans to diff would be a bear to put in and out. the two piece route with a fixed bearing at the dedion would perform the same way the transaxle or alfa sei diff would.
4.1 good all around diff ratio?
v

jornmason · Post by **jornmason** » Wed May 03, 2006 4:49 pm

which diffs did you look at, some of the diffs used a single mount very similar to the mount on the transaxle, the late 80s 325's even used the same rear wheel bearings, the axles should be very close, yes they used the identical style axle shafts, bmw and alfa used very similar parts during those years, some of which were actually interchangeable. with the drive shaft, one way of making a solid shaft easier to get in and out would be to have a slip yoke made at the trans end so you could slip the flange in a couple of inches to get clearance, then just drop the front of the dedion down and slip it out forward. oops sorry i think i typed something wrong on my last reply, i said you want to mount the front of the diff to the dedion, you dont want to do that, what i meant was dont mount it to the dedion, either make a mount that runs forward to the existing mounts or find a way of mounting it to the chassis. back to the axles, you shouldnt have any problem with the axles, alfa uses a spacer which moves the shafts out away from the brakes(spacer bolts to the transaxle, axle bolts to spacer), if the bolt pattern is not the same you could have the spacers remachined on the diff side to bolt right up, i would take the spacer off, take it with you and check to see if it will bolt up without machining. then you can just space it out to make up for discrepancies in the diff widths.

is it possible to strip the gearbox down to one gear?