"Albins" 930 & G50 gear sets unlimited

flatchat(Chris) · 17th December 2008, 04:54 AM

Worth a look --seems they're up to the challenge--especially the dog gears for the 930

Albins offroad gear - products: Gearsets

Russ Noble · 17th December 2008, 05:54 AM

That's interesting. Looks like they're running a two piece mainshaft on the dog option.

Peter D · 17th December 2008, 08:22 AM

For what its worth, I have had some experience with Albins.

About 3 years ago, I sent my G50 down to Albins for a new higher ratio 5th gear set to be fitted. Whilst they had the box apart, they were to check everything & replace the synchros.

I got the box back about 3 weeks later, installed it the car, & discovered 3 things :

- could not select 2nd gear at all
- the new 5th gear set had a whine that could be heard miles away
- more "clunking" (lash) that I had remembered (in 5th)

After some discussions on the phone, I removed the box & sent it back to Albins (transport at their expense). Once they pulled it apart, I got an apologetic call - "someone" had fitted the 2nd gear synchro ring incorrectly (an easy fix), but, they didn't have any other 5th gear sets in stock (& were not going to have any for some months).

So, I got the box back & re-installed it. 2nd gear now worked, but I had to live with the horrible 5th gear whine, & the clunking was unchanged. After a couple of months & a few phone calls, they shipped me a new 5th gear set - all I had to do was find someone knowledgeable to install it (no way was it going back to them).

After lots of searching, I found Autohaus Hamilton (Porsche experts) in Brookvale, Sydney. By this time, I was also suffering from an increasing amount of lash in the whole transmission system (48mm of movement at the tyre with the opposite tyre locked & the box in 5th !!).

So out came the box AGAIN, & off it went to Autohaus Hamilton, along with the replacement 5th gear set. A couple of days later, they have it all apart & I get a phone call :

- the alignment of the pinion vs the crown wheel was all wrong - this contributed to about half the lash problem. Thanks Albins.

- the new replacement 5th gear set was a factory Porsche option product & had almost twice as many teeth as the original Albins set. The Albins set must have been made for racing with 800hp where you can't hear the whine ! Nice of them to tell me !

So after proper reconstruction, the box goes back into the car - transformed !! Nice & quiet in 5th, & heaps less lash.

BUT - within weeks, the lash got worse. Having now got totally over the R&R of gearboxes, the whole car went back to Autohaus Hamilton. The following day, I get the phone call - come on down & see what we have found. They guys had done a series of tests, locking the trans at various point to find the lash problem.

The major one was the female splines in the clutch plate - horrible ! This was one of the original plates with a rubber cone rather than springs, & was replaced with a new spring-based plate.

The second issue was the drive-shafts / uni's. I have the older DRB setup with uni's & sliding splines - the lash in these was measuredat 5 & 6mm at the tyres. New spindles have been acquired (thanks Dimi) & new Commodore CV half shafts will be going in soon.

Sorry for the drift there, but it all just seemed to pour out !!

Back to the subject - I would be a little (lot) sceptical about Albins after my experience with them.

(And some of my local GT40 friends wonder why I have been reluctant to venture beyond my "affordable towing distance") !!

Kind Regards,

Peter D.

Dave Deerson · 17th December 2008, 08:29 AM

I am in the process of putting an order of a dog-change kit for my 930 in with Albins this week.California Motorsports is the US rep for them and has been very helpful.A few points of interest not on the website:
1.Almost any ratio(within reason) is do-able as not all available ratios are listed on the site.

2. The pic of the 2 piece input shaft with integral 1st and 2nd gears is a holdover picture from the kit to convert the 930 for off-road(desert) use and needing very low ratios,hence the need to put the smaller drive gears integral to the shaft as their diameter is too small to spline them onto the shaft.The street/roadcourse version reuses both your input shaft and pinion.

3.You can re-use your gears,if desired,as you just need to pull the baulk ring syncro hub off(by removing the factory peening),press the new Albins dog-hub on and tack weld(very small,with a tig) them on.the kit is ver simple:dog hubs for the gears,dog rings,slider hubs,and new shift shafts(since the shift detents are much shorter now).

I just finished up choosing ratios that will work better on the tracks I go to here in the northeast US.All of the ratios were available as they were offered at one time or another by Porche Motorsport.

I hope this helps,

Dave D.

Sandy · 17th December 2008, 06:45 PM

I think the gear boxes that I have had done all have gears from them. I think they are one of the few makers for the 930, not 100% but that is what I recall as it took a long time to get the specific ratios I wanted. By the time my boxes were done I had the thought of doing a straight cut gear, but figured too late and too much $$. I do like the idea, but the history of the boxes prove to be very durable with how they are stockish, except as people have noted they are clunky to shift. Wonder what the USD price is for the parts ;-)

Erik Johnson · 19th December 2008, 04:15 PM

Well I thought that I would chime in here. Albins has been making Porsche gears for some time, and while in the beginning of things, they were quite noisey, there have been a couple of companies that have worked with them to remedy this. Our company being one of them.

We have used Albin's gear for some time now and have several ratios always in stock. There is another company as well that does Porsche gears, I am sure that between the two builders of these gears that you can find pretty much any ratio you would like.

If anyone is in need of different gearing solutions, feel free to contact me as well. We specialize in Porsche gearboxes and build a great many of these for not only Porsche cars but Kit cars alike.

Always happy to help.

Warmest Regards,

Erik Johnson
Carquip Sales
(303) 443-1343 ext 2 work
(720) 980-9407 cell

Red9 · 13th March 2009, 03:59 AM

A lot of aftermarket Porsche gears are noisy.

Red9 · 13th March 2009, 04:01 AM

The OEM Porsche gears are generally quieter in street car application-albeit more costly. Many are available 2nd hand.

Erik Johnson · 20th March 2009, 06:28 PM

That is very often another direction that be explored. While one needs to be somewhat careful as to the quality of a used gear, it is a very viable option. I would recommend that new dogrings be installed prior to purchase though.

I can help with that too if anyone is in need.

Hope that this helps.

Erik Johnson
Carquip Sales
(303) 443-1343 ext 2 work

Daniel · 28th March 2009, 09:15 PM

Hi there I can highly reccomend Albins products as 90% of the guys racing off road in Australia use their gearsets and transaxles, I have been running their products for a long time and have never had any problems, if their stuff was no good why would Robby Gordon use Albins Transaxles in his Dakar Hummer?
a good friend of mine is using the 930 dog change set in his buggy and loves it but you would have to be doing 100% racing as driving a dog change on the street would be a nightmare!
Cheers

Daniel.