Club 80-90 Forums

Every day l learn more and more about these classic vans.

My apologies for not realising the position our fine forum users' were pointing to. I thought the code was stamped on the flat bit facing outwards, just below the CV joint/drives shaft? Close. But no cigar!

The code is stamped beneath the transaxle housing, right next to the differential/final drive/transaxle pan, about 8mm away from where l have spent ages bursting an eyeball blood vessel reading nowt but rust circles and corrosion.

FOUND IT! And it's stamped NJ 17026

How lucky am l! Been sat in my garage for a few years.
Note pan bolt above N.



Next question. Can this be repaired? Lower mount hole. Starter motor side. The case is iron/steel, l believe.

Regards to all,
Stuart

I also thought it was on the side.
Now we all know that it is stamped on the bottom

You can weld cast iron with TIG and special rods, but I think it is not worth it until you can find replacement parts. Especially as chunks are missing now.

Looks cracked also:

Because the final drive amd transmission are seperate units (different oils) you should be able to easily seperate them. Re-casing the diff will be a lot less difficult than delving into the 090...

Thanks. It is already separated from transmission. Still bloomin' heavy, though.
Ideal situation is get cased repaired.

maxstu wrote: ↑27 Nov 2024, 12:28 Thanks. It is already separated from transmission. Still bloomin' heavy, though.
Ideal situation is get cased repaired.

With internals in place, l should have added..

Is the final drive casing made from:
1. Cast iron (SG or grey?)
2. Cast steel
3. Cast malleable iron

I would most likely guess 1, possibly 3 (same as rear wheel bearing carriers)

That sort of fracture pretty much rules out option 2.

Welding of cast iron is highly specialized and expensive (fully submerged technique, extensive pre and post heating as the job has to be almost orange hot) and requiring full disassembly, for obvious reasons.

If it is cast steel then it could be welded "cold" but it might distort and you have to get an insert made.

Tig welding of iron using stainless alloy rods is closer to brazing and prone to failure anyway. The drilling is the weak point, its a poor design detail by VW.

It would be better and cheaper in the long run to get the diff rebuilt into another case.

I did read up on The Samba last night. General consensus it is cast iron. SG or grey? Not sure what that means?
I also watched a video featuring some Assie dude using oxy-acetylene welding on a plant machine casing with a big bashed out piece, about the 400mm x 300mm. And yes. Plenty of pre-heating involved. Yet the repair plate he put in he curved, using a press, to match the casing shape.... so not 100% sure of the case material, or patch for that matter.. I didn't have the sound on at the time.



So l have donor NJ INTERNALS and a good diff sitting in van at present. Might as well remove internals and see if the case can be repaired by a fella in Broadstairs. He drives a VW Doka too.




Time to get a differential workshop manual and start reading up.

autobox procedure is in Bentley
different special tools to the manual boxes which is why I don't work on them; hopefully you can learn enough taking apart the damaged case (improvising tools, adapting methodology, working out measurements) to avoid damaging the parts you need to reuse in making 1 good 'un out of the 2

Obviously first job in the new year will be to pull the sump and check the crown and pinion are okay, if they are not then there's no point in wasting time on it

Good point.



Project on back burner until Feb. With about a fifty others' too.

Thanks
Stuart

Iron welding is difficult because not only due to the different metallurgy and crystal structures of the parent and weld metals, but also because failures are due to differential cooling shrinkage rates causing tensile fractures in the heat affected zone of the parent metal.
In addition, the cooling rate decides the hardness of the finished weld even if successful. There is a nasty thing called "white iron" and its glass hard, very resistant to grinding. Nightmarish.

SG is spheroidal graphite, stronger than grey iron. Its all about how the carbon is dispersed within the iron. Again, could be malleable iron which is neither!

Noted.