Evil-Tunes 6volt to 12volt Conversion Adventure
I bought an all Steel Dune Buggy back in 2009 It was running a 1959 36hp engine and a split case transaxle.
I bought a 6volt Battery and had no problems with the system except for burning out a few Brazilin voltage regulators. The windshield wipers were very slow and hit the hood when it was up. I took them out as it is a fair weather car anyway. I needed a radio and I found a RadioShack 6v to 12v converter at the Punch Buggy swap meet.
and installed a waterproof radio.
It was not a high amp system so everything was ok.
I was looking for a turnkey engine for the Buggy because it could use a little more power for getting up the hills without down shifting. I needed a turnkey because I could not use any parts off of the 36hp engine. November 2010 I picked up a 1500cc used engine.
Just what I was looking for and it was cheap. Now all I have to do is some web research on the convert to 12 volts. There are a lot of resources out there. Here are a few that I liked.
http://www.vw-resource.com/ http://scottsvwwerks.wordpress.com/2010/09/06/vw-bug-6-volt-to-12-volt-conversion/ Research on the web told me that I had to change all light bulbs to 12v. Easy enough as all I have is front markers, tail lights, head lights, and the speedometer. I also had to change the horn to 12v and the flasher relay. You can get a resister for the 6 volt windshield wipers that will knock the voltage to 6 volt. I didn?t need that. The one thing I forgot about till the last minute was the License bulb.
I took the 36hp motor out . Boy I have a lot of room in this buggy now.
When Putting a 12volt 200mm flywheel engine in a 6volt 180mm flywheel Split trans you have to trim the inside of the trans so the bigger flywheel will fit. There are a few ways to do this after some web research. After getting a good look at the split trans.
It looked like it was already done. The bumps by the bolt holes where ground down only 1/16? was still there. Wow this is going to be easier than I thought. I had the 6-12volt bushing for the 12volt starter and put the starter and bushing in. You can also get a starter for an Autostick as they don?t need a bushing. I decided to go ahead a put the 1500cc engine in. This proved to be harder than getting the 36hp out. Getting the bolts to line up and stay on the jack was hard to do by my self . After fighting with it for a few minutes I got it all lined up and pushed it in about an inch. It would go no further . I tried to turn the crank so the flywheel would cut the trans as suggested by a few people and web documents. No go it was way too tight to turn. Ok time to pull the motor back out. My thinking after studying the split trans was it was ground out for the 180mm flywheel . I was trying to find out just how big the Flywheels are so I could make a template. I knew that the 180mm and 200mm refer to the size of the clutch disk and they are 109 and 130 teeth. I did find after hours of searching that the 180mm is 10 3/4" and 200mm is 10 13/16". I wanted to make sure as there are a few exceptions on the flywheels . I made a template on my CNC machine out of foam and sized the trans. I needed to take that 1/16" that was left over on the bolt holes and up by the Starter. No problem fired up the drill with a 2" x 3" drum sander.
Started taking all the bumps off. Now I read on the web that if you catch one of the engine/trans mounting studs you could get a spark and set off the Alum/Magnesium chips. Yes it does happen! It was a small fire and I'm glad it didn?t blow up in my face. Oh yea water will not help trust me on this one! Here is a close up after knocking the bumps off.
It was time to put the motor back in. Motor went in fine and slid all the way in this time. I turned the crank and it scraped just a little and stopped scraping after a few turns. Phew that was a relief. Put New exhaust on getting rdy for the start up. It was getting late and I decided to stop for the night.
I was thinking about the install and looking at a few pictures that I put up on the web. It occurred to me that I had the wrong pressure plate/throw out bearing combo. The pressure plate on the motor was like this.
And needs a pressure plate with a centering ring for the early type throw out bearing that I have like this.
Went to Advanced auto and ordered a new pressure plate/clutch/bearing combo. It took one day to come in from their warehouse. I also picked up rear trans/engine mount x2. I mind as well as I have to pull the motor again anyway, as I was having some clutch chatter with the 36hp motor. Good thing I bought the new mounts as the driver side was completely torn.
A friend came over to install a new Empi shifter that I picked up for him. By the time he took the old shifter out and put a new one in (only two bolts) I had the motor out of the bug. It was a little tighter this time as the exhaust was on but still had tons of room. I Installed mounts, pressure plate, clutch, and throw out bearing. Put engine back in. It was getting easier and easier to do now after the third time. I didn?t take any notes or pictures of the wiring of the motor before the 36hp came out. No problem it?s only 4 wires. Now I could kick myself. I tapped the top of the generator for the voltage regulator.
Mug Man Rich stopped by and tried to give me hand with it. We eventually figured it out after blowing the oil sending plug by putting 12v to it. It hit me that I needed to Adj. the clutch before I could start the motor. Don?t you know that I snapped the end of the clutch cable off. Because this is a dune buggy and was shortened by 14" (I think ). I was not sure of the length of the cable. I was running out of time because I wanted to ride the buggy in the Clayton Memorial Day Parade. Here was the fix. I had an Extra clutch cable for a bus. Went and hit the hardware store. This should hold for the parade.
Time to turn the key?..and viola she is running like a top. I noticed that the gen light was on. Checked all the wires and they seem ok. Polarized the generator and still the light is on. Because I will not be driving at night I will leave the generator for another day. I gave her a test drive and I could barely get out of first gear there was so much clutch chatter. The fix was a little more bend of the Bowden tube. Now there?s no chatter at all. Went to the Clayton Memorial Day Parade and had a blast.
http://www.sjvwc.net/forums/index.php?topic=7561.msg50954#msg50954 
After the parade and My Wife was no longer in the Buggy I decided to see if I could light up the fiftys in the back so I tacked it up and let the clutch fly.. (*speeder..The buggy barked the tires an took off. Now I have a whiney and chipped first gear. That will teach me to fool around with a 1959 split case swing axel transmission. Till the next adventure of rebuilding a used 1967 transmission.
Cheers
Glen
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Topic: Evil-Tunes 6volt to 12volt Conversion Adventure (Read 8158 times)