Reverse idler gears

[Bruce2]

I just received a couple of new reverse idler gears a few days ago and was not too thrilled when I first saw them.
Here's a pic of them. The new one is on the left, the "Made in USA" gear is on the right. The box in behind is what the new gear came in. It has no markings other than the numbers you can see. My first impression is that it ooozes China. What do you think?
Apart from the obvious lack of a tapered lead in, they painted it with clear paint! What moron thought that up? Have they never heard of cosmoline?

Adjusting this new gear is slightly different than the stock/USA gear. Because of the wider teeth, you can't set the gear as deep into the 1-2 slider as you can with the stock gear. If you do, it clashes against the 1-2 slider when you're in 2nd gear.





Anyone know for sure where this one is made? If it is indeed China, the few USA made gears I have just got moved over to the "private reserve".

[kcr]

They sure don't look very good. I did some testing for a company a little while back. China sliders, and reverse gears. We actually installed the trans into a car and drove a few thousand miles. Everything looked great when we inspected it. Ugly reverse gear and all.

[Bruce2]

China sliders,

Yikes! Those too? I never thought I would see the day when we'd be lusting after NOS Brazilian parts.

[vwbilly]

So, Did you install one of these lovely gears in a box? How are these working??

[Bruce2]

I installed 2 of them last year. It's doubtfull that I'll ever hear from the owners since I built the gearboxes for the car builder.

[vwbilly]

who's NEW reverse gears do you like to use??

[Bruce2]

Unless you can find old stock of the black one on the right of my pic above (Made in USA), you are stuck with the painted China gear.

One thing I know for sure is that the genuine VW of Germany gear is CRAP! I would use the China gear over the genuine one.

[pupjoint]

ahhh damn...the one i got from Rancho in 2009 looks like a china gear. i will try to post pics soonest.

any idea who sells the black made in USA reverse gears?

i found a shop who has NOS german reverse gears, but dint buy them of course.

[kcr]

Most N.O.S. German ones are a replacement for the crap gears that were not heat treated correctly from the factory. That's why we see so frequently an absolutely chewed up reverse gear and the slider will have little to no damage. The VW "fix" was a gear that I mostly see has a line through the middle of the teeth.

The part about the heat treat is 2nd hand info to me, but it makes sense.

[Bruce2]

Thanks for that info, Kevin. I've always wondered what the line indicated on NOS ones.

[gkeeton]

What about Weddle's reverse gears? From what I understand they are made from the same material their aftermarket close ratios gears are made of. The shop I work at has used quite a few in buggy tranny rebuilds, and they've been holding up well.

[dangerous]

Those are all I use.(Albins)

[vwbilly]

Third on Weddle's gear... I don't like the price. but it is a nice gear. I have a few in off road cars doing very well.

Weddle has a few things that are very handy.

[gkeeton]

Third on Weddle's gear... I don't like the price. but it is a nice gear. I have a few in off road cars doing very well.

Weddle has a few things that are very handy.

I would say 97% of the off-road tranny's I've worked on have had severly worn/broken reverse gears. Because of this, good used reverse gears were becomming harder, and harder to come by. It got to the point were the value of a good used gear, because of availability, was close to that of a new one. Some gears are simply not available new anymore, so I'm just happy Weddle is making the ones they are.

[Casting Timmy]

Has anyone else clearance the new style reverse gear to make room for it in the transaxles? I was talking to a well know builder and he said sometimes he thins them to fit, the last box I did was an 091 with all Weddle gears and there was no way it was going to not hit something.

I clearanced the back side of the gear that would hit second on the main shaft by doing an angle grind on the teeth so as the gear cocks it wouldn't hit into the main shaft. I know the bus linkage gives a lot more slack with reverse, but this had a new pivot and I adjusted out the linkage all that I could to eliminate slop.

Interesting to see if others have done this with the new gears, or maybe food for thought to remember when rebuilding with these new style gears.